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A FORWARD STEP 



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A FORWARD STEP 

FOR THE DEMOCRACY 
OF TO-MORROW 



BY 

WILLIAM THUM 




BOSTON, MASS. 

Cie CtoeatietJ Centtirp Companp 

1910 






COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY WILLIAM THUM 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



€C!.A25953 



PEEFACE 

This is a book for common people, written by one 
of their own number. What may appear to be 
needless repetition of ideas in the book is due to 
the fact that many of the articles hinge upon the 
one main purpose of promoting the interests of 
self-supporting students. The articles were written 
under the following convictions : — 

First, that it is of the utmost importance that 
the average man, especially the laborer, should ap- 
preciate the value of the future high school. 

Second, that further ethical, political, and indus- 
trial progress depends more upon the high schools, 
greatly increased in number and improved in effi- 
ciency, than upon any other one thing. 

Third, that this increase in size and improve- 
ment in quality depends upon there being provision 
made to supply those who would be self-support- 
ing students with remunerative and wisely selected 
work. 

Fourth, that the church could strike at evil in 
no better way than to direct its main effort toward 
furthering the interests of the public schools. 



vi PKEFACE 

In the preparing of these articles for publica- 
tion, I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to 
Miss Ada J. Miller, who rendered indispensable 
aid. 

William Thum. 



CONTENTS 

Democracy, the High School, and Self-Support- 

iNG Students 1 

Public Works High Schools 7 

Manufacturing Works High Schoois ... 77 
Suggestions Relative to a Public Works 

Scholarship Fund 89 

The Heart-Mind and the School .... 95 

Questions for the Universities 107 

Redeem National Resources and Help the 

Schools 112 

A Study in Kinship: Church and School . . 138 

The Sunday League 157 

National Education Party 209 

SocLAii System — Education — Race Suicide . 216 
One Way to spend Two Millions for the 

Public Good 219 

A Fearless Church — A Better Country . . 223 
Discussion 234 



DEMOCRACY, THE HIGH SCHOOL, 
AND SELF-SUPPORTING STUDENTS 

The main object of every nation should be to reach 
the nearest possible approach to a truly democratic 
state. Democracy that is worthy of the name can- 
not be possible until a great majority of the citi- 
zens possess both a good general education, and a 
special education in some economic field. We here 
include the professions and arts in economic activ- 
ity. A good general education will tend to equal- 
ize us socially, and a nearer approach to social 
democracy wiU result. A weU-diffused economic 
education will tend toward an equalization of our 
earning capacities, and to the extent of the equal- 
ization effected, it wiU develop economic demo- 
cracy. 

In order to build this form of democracy, it is 
of great value that economic education be im- 
proved, and that it be more generally distributed ; 
but it must be accompanied by a much better 
distribution of general education. This combined 
economic and general education must be of such a 
degree and so well distributed as to lead the citi- 



2 SELF-SUPPORTING STUDENTS 

zen to the polls in the interest of laws that will 
result in economic justice. By economic justice we 
mean a state in which no man, through the mere 
power of wealth, can take artificial advantage of 
men who possess less wealth or a keener moral 
sense. We cannot approximate social democracy 
until all citizens have an equal opportunity to ob- 
tain a general secondary and higher education. But 
all cannot have such equal opportunity until eco- 
nomic methods and customs no longer give to some 
persons an unearned advantage. 

As just stated, we must have a higher popular 
education, both general and economic, in order to 
make laws that put an end to much of this undue 
advantage; but as the undue advantage retards 
the needed advance in popular education, progress 
is unavoidably slow. We can, however, safely hope 
that the retarded education will be aU the better 
for the struggle required. This slow progress may 
be the only safe way for the present, but no oppor- 
tunity to further education should pass unim- 
proved. 

True national democracy must always tend to- 
ward both economic and social democracy. In so- 
cial democracy we include both intellectual and 
moral democracy. As long as educated persons are 
relatively few, they will take little interest in poli- 



SELF-SUPPORTING STUDENTS 3 

tics ; but as their relative numbers increase, their 
interest in politics will increase. When they are in 
the majority, politics will become the most import- 
ant subject of their thought and action. Thus poli- 
tics will be purified and democracy will be fur- 
thered. Again: as long as secondary and higher 
education is monopolized by relatively few, these 
few, with some exceptions, will take undue advan- 
tage of the less enlightened. In many cases this 
advantage is taken unwittingly, because even higher 
education in politics and economics is as yet crude. 
Under these conditions an approximation to true 
democracy is out of the question. 

It is the duty of every man who has the ability 
to learn, to obtain a good general education and 
an economic education. It is his further duty as 
a citizen to aid in the spread of secondary edu- 
cation. The majority of those who have the means 
to pay the expense of obtaining such education, or 
who have friends to pay these expenses for them, 
no doubt attend secondary schools. We therefore 
depend principally on the self-supporting youth to 
increase the number of earnest students in these 
schools. The number who systematically and liber- 
ally educate themselves at home is too small to 
take into account. The man who has not in one 
way or another obtained a thorough secondary 



4 SELF-SUPPORTING STUDENTS 

education is usually far from his best in citizen- 
ship. 

Uncomplimentary things are often said about 
some high schools and about some of the students, 
and at times with good reason. This adverse criti- 
cism is due to the fact that too large a proportion 
of high-school students regard the school merely as 
a means of making one proficient in the "game 
of grab," or in the " society habit." Nevertheless, 
without high schools improved by time and greatly 
increased in number, our advance toward true de- 
mocracy will be so slow that the reactionary element 
in both the so-called lower and higher classes of 
society will more than counteract this slow advance, 
and finally, such democracy as we have attained will 
be destroyed. We especially mention high schools, 
as, in our present state of enlightenment, they are 
more necessary than are additional universities. If 
what has been said is true, the high school, or its 
equivalent, and the self-supporting student, give us 
our greatest hope for further advance toward true 
democracy. 

The following plan is offered as a suggestion to 
any boy of sixteen or eighteen years of age, who, 
in order to do his duty to himself and to his country, 
is eager to have an education beyond the eighth 
grade, who is dependent on his own resources, and 



SELF-SUPPORTING STUDENTS 5 

who is so situated as to make the following under- 
taking feasible. Let him find a willing partner in 
a tried friend, and let them together seek perma- 
nent employment in some business, as one boy, one 
to work in the forenoon, the other in the afternoon. 
After demonstrating their ability to do their work 
to the satisfaction of their employer, let them apply 
to some well-equipped high school, or polytechnic 
school, for admission in half-day sessions, one to 
attend in the forenoon, and the other in the after- 
noon for the first year, with the reverse order of 
time for the second year. In this manner, each will 
attend a year of morning and a year of afternoon 
sessions, and in the two years will have obtained a 
fuU year of schooling. When over school age, the 
boys will be required to pay approximately their 
share of the operating expenses of the school. This 
requirement should not be regarded as an obstacle, 
as it will amount to only about thirty dollars a year 
for a half-time student. It may often be advisable 
that these boys room together. By this plan each 
will keep better informed regarding the work done 
by the other, and the two can better fill the place 
of a single employee. Two boys living at home may 
still live together by staying first at the home of 
one, then at the home of the other, alternating per- 
haps every month. If economy is practiced in every 



6 SELF-SUPPORTING STUDENTS 

direction, wages of six dollars a week for the half- 
time of each student will pay all living and school 
expenses.^ School men believe that most young men 
could easily graduate after six years of this half- 
time attendance. By this plan the school education 
would be more slowly and more thoroughly assimi- 
lated, and would thus gain in value. Employers 
often advance their best interests by giving em- 
ployment to well-chosen, self-supporting students. 

^ See note on page 234 for discussion of these wages. 



PUBLIC WOKKS HIGH SCHOOLS.' 

In order to create a desire to attend high school, 
all children, while in the elementary grades, should 
be gradually and persistently taught the many and 
priceless advantages of a thorough high-school train- 
ing. One period a week for one term in the eighth 
grade might be given to lessons on the advantages 
to be derived from an earnest high-school education. 
These lessons should be so clearly fixed in the mind 
as to create a desire to learn, and should show that 
efficiency in some activity for self-support, a know- 
ledge of the foundations of literature, science, music, 
and art are essential to a happy life ; they should 
show that steadily increasing knowledge is one of 
the necessities of our modern life, and that a high- 
school training is virtually indispensable as a means 
toward these ends.^ 

^ With the exception of slight changes, this article is a reprint 
of an article published in The Arena for December, 1907. Objec- 
tions that were made to the plan before its first publication are 
discussed, and this fact accounts for the otherwise unnecessary 
length of the paper, 

^ The question at once arises, how can the eighth-grade student 
be taught this desirable knowledge, and what shall constitute 



8 PUBLIC WOKKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

In order that our young men may obtain the full 
benej&t of high-scliool training, it is necessary that 
every one of them who is physically able should 
earn and pay his own expenses after arriving at the 
age of sixteen. He should earn not only his personal 
expenses, but eventually his share of the running 
expenses of the school. Not only sons of parents 
who cannot afford to send their children to high 
school, but all other young men of sixteen or over, 
would be benefited by earning their own education. 
"When conditions make it possible, this applies also 
to young women. 

It is well known that young men who, either 
from necessity or from choice, work their way 
through high school or college stand, almost with- 
out exception, far above the average. If the work 
by means of which they earn their living and 
school expenses is within reason, it harms them in 
no way ; in many ways it benefits them. Some 
young men undertake to work outside of school 

these lessons. Call for volunteer schools to try the experiment. 
Permit volunteers among the teachers to prepare, during the year, 
twenty approved half -hour lectures, taking the whole year to per- 
fect them. The next year set aside twenty half -hour periods in the 
last term of the eighth grade, and go at it. At least some of the 
schools will succeed in making a series of lessons worth adopting, 
and soon the best authorities on education will take an interest in 
the new course and perfect the lessons. In this case the main thing 
is to make a determined start. 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 9 

hours and during vacations and attend higli school 
full time ; some work half-days and attend school 
half-days ; others undertake to work steadily three 
or four years to save enough to pay the expenses 
of a high-school course. Under present conditions, 
too few self-supporting young men try to obtain a 
high-school education ; and, for various reasons, too 
large a proportion of those who do try fail to carry 
out their intentions : only the most fortunate and 
strongest succeed, — but happily these are numbered 
by the thousands. The principal reasons for failure 
are unsteadiness of employment, and lack of asso- 
ciates who are striving to accomplish the same end. 
How much better could the desired result be 
accomplished if the public would plan to employ 
ambitious students at steady and justly paid work ! 
This work should yield enough to defray the stu- 
dent's necessary expenses, and should, whenever 
possible, be instructive as weU. Such a plan would 
give the student the further advantage of having 
associates voluntarily working by his side with the 
same object in view. The obtaining of an educa- 
tion, instead of being a difficult and very often an 
impossible task for a self-supporting young man, 
would become a decided pleasure. Eventually, all 
young men, and possibly many young women, would 
be given an opportunity to earn their way through 



10 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

higli school. The legal time for attendance in such 
schools should extend over a period of eight years, 
anywhere between the ages of sixteen and twenty- 
eight. The public would be expected to provide only 
grounds, buildings, and initial expenses, and then 
exercise general supervision over the schools ; the 
students themselves would in time be obliged to 
earn and pay all operating expenses of the schools. 
The plan proposed might require five, ten, or even 
more than ten times the present high-school capacity; 
this capacity, however, could be increased with but 
little increase in taxation. 

By reason of the many improvements in the 
methods of manufacture, industrial work has be- 
come so productive that almost any healthy young 
man of sixteen or eighteen could produce enough 
in five hours per day to pay the necessary expenses 
of a public works high school course. After two or 
three years of experience in work, he could earn 
more than enough for the necessary expenses ; and, 
if he wished to do so, could accumulate a reserve 
fund for later use. Some economists assure us that 
when our industrial programme is less wasteful and 
the products of labor are distributed in an approxi- 
mately equitable manner, the average laboring man 
will be able to earn enough in five hours per day 
to give him as good a living as he now enjoys. Two 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 11 

of the possible results of the proposed plan are a 
greater productiveness per work-hour and a fairer 
distribution of the products of labor. 

The present inequitable distribution of the prod- 
ucts of labor, and the lack of general and thorough 
secondary education, are the direct causes of much 
unhappiness, and the indirect causes of virtually 
all unhappiness. Our elementary education is now 
well distributed ; it is, however, hardly an adequate 
preparation for life. If we are to have any further 
progress, except in a slow, laborious, and wasteful 
way, every young person with sufficient capacity 
should be given an opportunity to obtain a second- 
ary education. The plan that this article suggests 
aims to give all those who desire this education the 
opportunity to earn the means necessary for attend- 
ing high school, and, incidentally, it aims to modify 
the operation of utility works owned by the public, 
so that public ownership will effect the greatest 
possible results. No better means is at hand for 
the equitable distribution of some of the principal 
products of labor than well-conducted public utility 
works. 

Every practicable public opportunity, and, for 
that matter, every private one, that will enable a 
young man to earn the means for his high-school 
education should be opened to him, and, eventu- 



12 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

ally, should be opened to aU young men regardless 
of whether or not they can live on the support of 
parents and friends. It is of as much importance 
to the average rich man's son that he earn his own 
high-school education as that he have such an edu- 
cation. The influence of complete dependence upon 
others is sometimes ruinous. This is evidenced by 
every supported high-school student who does not 
earnestly apply himself to his studies. 

How shall we employ the young men? The 
public has municipal work to do, and the greater 
part of this work could be done by clear-headed 
young men from sixteen to twenty-eight years of 
age, who are students in public works high schools. 
In order to avoid giving the younger of these 
students too many hours of industrial work in one 
continuous period, it might be desirable to limit one 
set of students to five hours of labor in the forenoon 
and to at least three hours of school work in the after- 
noon ; with the other set of students the order would 
have to be reversed. This arrangement of time, 
"vith modifications for night work and special cases, 
would permit one half of the students to take a 
forenoon session in school, and the other half an 
afternoon session. Experienced educators say that 
the average self-supporting student of sixteen can 
thoroughly assimilate a full high-school course 



PUBLIC WOKKS HIGH SCHOOLS 13 

in six years of half-time school attendance. As- 
suming this to be true, the public works school, if 
equipped for the purpose, could either give two 
half-time years to technical or trade training, or the 
same amount of time to college work. 

It is evident that the study programme of such 
a school would differ from that of the ordinary 
high school mainly in the fact that each forenoon 
programme of study would be repeated with the 
other set of students in the afternoon. In case such 
schools are established, it would be a matter for 
experience to decide whether it would be better 
and more convenient to have the older and stronger 
boys and young men work and study alternately 
by half-days or by longer periods of time. 

Thousands of young men have earned the means 
to pay their way through a full high-school course, 
and have taken it in fewer than six years. What 
thousands of young men can do under difficult 
conditions in less time, millions could do in the six 
years under public works high school conditions. 
Furthermore, we should find that the self-support- 
ing students of these schools, after once the proper 
rules and methods were established, could do the 
manual, and even the managerial, labor of many 
municipal works with far better results than the 
average works can show at the present time. 



14 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

What is here said of students of public works 
high schools would apply with greater force to 
students of public works colleges, should these col- 
leges ever exist. 

One way in which a trial of the foregoing plan 
might be made, is as foUows : — 

Take, for example, a city of ten thousand to 
thirty thousand inhabitants, owning its water works. 
Let us assume, for the sake of brevity, that the 
force of men employed in the water works is as fol- 
lows : — 

1. A superintendent, whose duties are to act as 
secretary, overseer of the books, and general man- 
ager of the office and works. 

2. An office clerk, whose principal duties are to 
do the bookkeeping and to act as cashier. 

3. A meter and bill man to read the meters and 
make out the monthly water bills. 

4. A foreman over the mechanics and day la- 
borers in the works and in the field. 

5. A machinist. 

6. An engineer for the engine and pump room. 

7. A fireman for the boiler room. 

8. A janitor, whose duties include messenger 
service and the care of a team. 

9. Several laborers for trench digging and pipe 
laying. 



PUBLIC WOKKS HIGH SCHOOLS 15 

A committee composed of the school superin- 
tendent, the principals of the several schools, and 
one or more members from each educational, social, 
and business society might be organized to take 
the matter in hand. If it is found that the city 
administration and the citizens will readily favor 
the making of a public works high school experi- 
ment in connection with the water works, the com- 
mittee might proceed in its own way, or it might 
adopt the following plan : It could choose two 
capable young men who are willing to do the 
janitor service, one to work in the forenoon and 
attend school in the afternoon; the other to at- 
tend school in the forenoon and work in the 
afternoon. It goes without saying that diligence 
must be required of the young men in the water 
works, also regular attendance and good standing 
in the school. The committee, in making its choice 
of young men, could be guided largely by the 
recommendations of their former teachers, and be 
reasonably sure of the character of the young 
men chosen. Since there are no public works high 
schools in existence to which such young men can 
be sent, the committee would, for the present, be 
obliged to make arrangements with the regular 
high school of the city so to adjust its programme 
as to accommodate self-supporting students who 



16 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

wish to do this work. It might at first be some- 
what difficult to put a student through one year of 
the course in two years, with attendance only in 
the forenoon during the first year, and the next 
year with attendance only in the afternoon ; but this 
difficulty would gradually be overcome as the teach- 
ing force adapted itself to the new condition. Here 
we must remember that the young men in question 
will be students above the average, and that such 
students are a pleasure to the teachers. This fact 
will do much to lessen the burden of any extra work 
involved. 

About two weeks before the beginning of the 
school year, the two young men chosen for janitor 
service at the water works could work with the 
janitor and take instructions from him. When 
school begins, the janitor would leave, ^ and the 
young men would fill his place, each working one 
half-day, as explained before, until the begin- 
ning of the next school year. These young men 
would have to work during the vacations the same 
as during the school terms, that is, five hours each 
day, because they would need the money for self- 
support, and because it would be impracticable for 

^ The committee would of course "be under obligations to give 
the displaced employee other employment at similar wages. The 
problem thus presented will be referred to later. 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 17 

the water works department to initiate a set of new 
men each vacation.^ 

About two weeks before the beginning of the 
second year of our experiment, each one of the 
student janitors could, in the free part of his work 
day, take instructions from the meter reader and 
biU man in order to be prepared to take the meter 
readings, and to make out the monthly water biUs 
during the second or following year. During the 
two weeks that these young men take instructions 
from the meter reader, each could, during his work 
hours, instruct the second set of students chosen 
by the committee to do the janitor work for the 
coming year. Throughout the second year of the 
experiment, therefore, the second set of students 
would serve as janitors and messengers, and the 
first would do the meter reading and make out the 
monthly water bills. 

About four weeks before the beginning of the 
third school year of the experiment, each one of 
the first set of students should, in the free part of 
his work day, take instructions from the office clerk 
in order to be prepared to keep the books and to 
do the other duties of the clerk during the follow- 

^ A public works school experiment that promises success has 
been started by Throop Polytechnic Institute and the city of 
Pasadena, California. 



18 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

ing, or third, school year. Previous to this, the high 
school should have prepared the first set of stu- 
dents by arranging their studies so that both would 
have received school training in bookkeeping and 
office work. In the third year, therefore, the first 
set of students, by this time eighteen to twenty- 
two years old, would do the work of the office 
clerk; the second set, seventeen to twenty-one 
years old, would do the work of meter reader and 
bill man ; and the third set, sixteen to twenty years 
old, would do the janitor and messenger work. By 
this time the janitor, the meter and bill man, and 
the office clerk would have been displaced; the 
first set of students would, at the beginning of each 
school year, have been initiated in their various 
duties by the respective men originally performing 
those duties ; the second and third set of students 
would have been initiated in their work, each by 
the preceding set. Whenever practicable, high- 
school studies should be employed to help the stu- 
dents in the duties of the current year, and also to 
help prepare them for the duties of the year to 
follow. The courses in mechanics and bookkeeping 
would meet virtually every need that might arise 
in carrying out this system. 

The programme as given above could be contin- 
ued on similar lines for the remaining five years 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 19 

of the full course. Briefly stated, this programme 
might be as follows. In the fourth year, the first 
set of students, now from nineteen to twenty-three 
years old, might act as trench-makers and pipe- 
layers. In the fifth year, they could, under the 
supervision of the engineer, do the firing and dis- 
place the fireman ; they now would be from twenty 
to twenty-four years old. In the sixth year, with 
the high-school preparation in mechanics, and 
with the supervision of the foreman and machinist, 
they could perform the work of engineer. In the 
seventh year, with the technical high-school training, 
the two students, now twenty-two to twenty-six years 
of age, could ordinarily do the work of the machin- 
ist. In the eighth year of our experiment, the last 
year of the course, the first students might possi- 
bly be competent to displace the foreman ; if not, 
some other arrangement could be made to keep 
them employed. From the plan as outlined, it wiU 
readily be seen that each year, as the first set of stu- 
dents was shifted to other work, the shifting of the 
others would naturally follow, and a new set would 
be introduced as janitors. If this advancement in 
the work should prove to be too rapid for best re- 
sults, the students could be confined to the more 
common work, and the positions of engineer, ma- 
chinist, and foreman could be left in older hands. 



20 PUBLIC WOKKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

At the end of the eighth school year, the first 
set of students would graduate from high school 
and would no longer be eligible to employment in 
municipal works, except in the few positions that 
are of necessity permanent. Aside from employ- 
ment in these permanent positions, one of the fun- 
damental rules regarding the students in the muni- 
cipal works must be that they shall be engaged 
only while receiving a public works high school 
education ; and that graduates and others shall be 
employed in the temporary positions only when there 
is no suitable candidate waiting to take up the em- 
ployment for the purpose of receiving such educa- 
tion. 

We must not lose sight of the fact that the 
young men employed are selected because of special 
ability, and that they would do the work at least as 
weU as the average man. We must also keep in 
mind the fact that, if public works high schools 
are opened, the several municipal enterprises that 
might be within the territory of any certain school 
would, in a sense, become a part of its curriculum, 
and would be under the direct scrutiny of the 
entire school, students as well as instructors. Of 
course the municipal water works here used as an 
illustration is but an imaginary affair, much sim- 
plified for the purpose of shortening this article. 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 21 

In practice, the carrying out of the plan just out- 
lined would prove to be a more complicated mat- 
ter than we have made it appear ; but once in 
operation, this plan cannot fail of success. Not 
all young men would be capable of doing aU kinds 
of work, and many variations from a typical case 
might be required to suit varying conditions ; such 
difficulties, nevertheless, can be overcome. 

Most boys finish the eighth grade by the time 
they are fourteen years old ; what shall be done 
with them until sixteen years of age? Those who 
are large and strong for their years might, in spe- 
cial cases, be given some light employment in the 
municipal works and allowed to attend the public 
works high school as though they were sixteen years 
old ; five hours daily of easy occupation would not 
be injurious to a healthy boy of fourteen. The re- 
mainder of the fourteen and fifteen-year-old boys 
in families that cannot afford to keep their child- 
ren in school beyond the eighth grade, might find 
light half-time employment outside of municipal 
works. These boys might even go to work at the 
most suitable full-time employment that offers until 
reaching the age of sixteen ; or, work proving un- 
available, they might simply be obliged to wait until 
the proper age. Parents having a boy graduate from 
the eighth grade at the age of fourteen would, of 



22 PUBLIC WOEKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

course, if they could afford to do so, fully maintain 
him and pay all expenses of full-time school attend- 
ance during the ninth and tenth grades, and then, 
after the boy is sixteen years old, require him to 
earn his own way through the eleventh and tweKth 
grades, and what might be called the thirteenth 
grade, by employment either in some public works 
or elsewhere. This thirteenth grade would cover 
the first year of college work, or two half-time 
years of technical or of trade training. These 
three grades, under half-time attendance in the pub- 
lic works high school, would require &ve years of 
time. 

According to the proposed plan for public works 
high schools, the full course is divided into eight 
half-grades and is equivalent to a regular high- 
school course and the first year of a college course. 
The entire work of each of the half-grades is 
given in the forenoon, and repeated in the after- 
noon, throughout each year, for the benefit of both 
sets of the half -day pupils. The course thus planned 
will cover eight years for the half-day pupils, but 
will at the same time offer the opportunity for full- 
day pupils to complete it in five years, as at pre- 
sent, by attending school full time and selecting 
such studies and such periods as will give credit 
for a full course. Since in all probability the public 



PUBLIC WOKKS HIGH SCHOOLS 23 

works high school students would eventually pay 
the entire operating expenses of the schools, the 
need of extending the legal school age would not 
be a disadvantage so long as any one individual 
may attend the school only eight half-years. The 
age limit, ranging from sixteen to twenty-eight 
years, would make a number of sufficiently mature 
men available for the municipal works; whereas, 
a lower age limit would, for some departments, be 
unwise. 

Under an arrangement similar to that described 
for the public works high schools, yet without 
adopting the plan in fuU, the city government of 
any city having a polytechnic institute could offer 
situations to suitable students of the institute, and 
gradually all the municipal works of the city would 
become closely connected with the school. The stu- 
dent employees would be under the supervision of 
the proper city authorities, and would at the same 
time be under the care and guidance of the school. 
The institute could make the study of the munici- 
pal works in which its students are employed a 
part of one or more of its courses, and in this way 
develop experts and managers for these works. In 
cities not having schools of this kind from which to 
supply their own demand, good employment could 
readily be found for young men thus prepared. 



24 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

Men having had eight years of half-time practical 
experience, together with the same length of time 
in a polytechnic institute, would be exceptionally 
valuable in either publicly or privately owned 
works. 

Every individual who earnestly strives to develop 
his reasoning power properly and to accumulate a 
valuable supply of knowledge is doing his first duty 
to the state. Here we mean such reasoning power 
and such knowledge as will result, at least, in the 
healthy development of both body and mind. It is, 
therefore, to the interest of every city to assist all 
eligible persons desiring to obtain a high-school 
education by offering them such employment as it 
can. This systematic work, both in school and out 
of school, will develop the reasoning power to the 
best advantage. By employing young persons who 
are ready to work for an education, the city at once 
gets the strongest moral class of labor, and thus 
raises the standard of municipal purity. The fact 
that each student employee would be kept on one 
class of work but one year, or as long as good serv- 
ice might require; the fact that each individual 
municipal enterprise would be a subject of study in 
a public works high school; and the further fact 
that the students of these schools would have inti- 
mate and practical coiinection with the municipal 



PUBLIC WOKKS HIGH SCHOOLS 25 

works, woiild make fraudulently inclined men shun 
municipal employment. The municipal purity that 
could be brought about by this plan would make 
municipal ownership a comparatively easy matter; 
and municipal ownership would naturally extend 
to many lines of business that cannot now be under- 
taken by the city on account of graft, some of which 
intrudes into civic positions and does moral and 
economic damage beyond calculation. The relations 
here proposed for the city and the public works 
high schools would apply equally to the state and 
the public works colleges. 

As public works high schools and colleges develop, 
it would become feasible to have municipal tele- 
phone systems, water works, gas works, electric 
works, ice plants, dairies, laundries, and street 
railways ; also public telegraph, postal savings 
banks, government railways, and other govern- 
ment enterprises. Later, the field of public enter- 
prise could be so extended that one half of the 
necessities of life would be furnished, approxi- 
mately at cost, by public works. When such a time 
is reached, all who are not in the higher financial 
strata, and all into whose lives luxuries do not enter 
largely, would no longer pay unnecessary tribute to 
trusts and monopolies. The average individual can 
entirely shake off the dwarfing effects of paying 



26 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

this unnecessary tribute only when he and his 
fellows are sufficiently enlightened to cooperate 
intelligently in supplying their more important 
needs. 

The greater the number of municipal enterprises 
that can be operated successfully, the greater will 
be the number of students that can be employed, 
and the more rapid will be our intellectual and 
economic growth. Varied work for the young in 
any municipal business would teach good business 
methods by actual practice, and good business meth- 
ods are a most valuable asset in private life. After 
eight years of half-time employment in municipal 
works, the young citizen would be familiar with the 
details of operation in these works ; and, further- 
more, he could more readily familiarize himseK with 
other municipal business. Thus he would be trained 
to be a reliable judge in matters pertaining to mu- 
nicipal industry ; and, when a large majority of the 
citizens are thus trained, any indifference to public 
trust or any possible fraudulent action on the part 
of a municipal employee, would be still more quickly 
discovered. The annual reports of all municipal 
industries would naturally be freely studied, com- 
pared, and criticised by the majority of graduates 
of the public works high schools. These schools 
could, if necessary, well afford to omit some of the 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 27 

present high-school studies, valuable though they 
are, in order to study municipal industrial business 
and thereby aid in the establishment and mainte- 
nance of greater purity in municipal industrial 
enterprises ; but, regardless of the foregoing reason, 
municipal industrial activity, carefully considered, 
would still be an interesting, instructive, and pro- 
fitable study for the schools. 

There is one thing in particular that could be 
done for publicity in municipal enterprise that 
would at the same time be of value to the public 
works high schools. The bookkeeping classes could 
be given complete sets of copies of the corre- 
spondence, the vouchers, and the various account 
books for the previous year, of one or more of 
the municipal enterprises of the city ; and, during 
the current year, they could enter and post each 
item to its proper account, and balance the books 
at the customary intervals; The bookkeeping 
course could just as well include some part of 
the city's actual bookkeeping as to provide only 
imaginary work; some imaginary work in other 
lines of business would still be necessary, but 
less would answer in consequence of the practice 
obtained from the municipal bookkeeping. The 
classes would naturally feel a keener interest in 
actual than in imaginary work, and the students 



28 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

would become familiar with those municipal enter- 
prises, the accounts of which they had audited. 
Should the time come for some of these stu- 
dents to act as clerks in these particular enter- 
prises, they would be especially fitted for such 
service. 

Instead of using copies of correspondence, vouch- 
ers, and account books of the previous year, as 
suggested above, it might be practicable at once to 
duplicate all office work and have the bookkeeping 
classes of the high school keep dupHcate books at 
the same time that the original books are being kept 
in the office of the municipal works. The doing of 
actual, current work would, no doubt, create a live- 
lier interest than would the reproduction of work 
a year old. If the office of the municipal enter- 
prise and the public works high school would 
act in harmony, the labors of bookkeeping in 
the school could be so arranged as to enable the 
instructors to distribute the work among many 
students, and thus save much time and obtain 
better results. It is probable that the methods 
of teaching the actual bookkeeping of municipal 
works as outlined would have to be developed 
as a science, through practical experience in the 
smaller cities, before becoming applicable to the 
larger cities where the bookkeeping of the muni- 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 29 

cipal works is of too great magnitude for experi- 
mental purposes.^ 

With the growing importance of industrial life, 
the public works high school may have to give more 
than the ordinary amount of time to the study of 
bookkeeping ; and bookkeeping, to a certain point, 
should perhaps be made compulsory, as it has 
become so vital an element in our economic and 
political hfe. To the end that all cities may adopt 
practically the same system, the whole process 
of municipal bookkeeping is steadily being made 
more simple and more uniform. The bookkeeping 
department of public works high schools could make 
it a point to look for improved methods in munici- 
pal accounting, and in the rendering of municipal 

^ The city's department of education is but a municipal enter- 
prise, and the account books of this department would at once 
be available for study by the bookkeeping classes. After a pro- 
gramme for the study of these books has been perfected, the plan 
could readily be extended to include the books of other city 
departments as suggested above. In cities having several high 
schools and colleges, each of the schools might be confined to the 
books of a different department or works, thus specializing the 
accounting. In reviewing the books of the department of educa- 
tion, all details, including the individual teacher's salary, would be- 
come known to students, and this might at first be embarrassing 
to those teachers who are less frank than they should be. Teach- 
ers, especially, should be frank enough to be above such embarrass- 
ment. It is through the department of education that this invalu- 
able publicity can best be introduced into all other departments. 



30 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

reports. The iiltimate object of the reports should 
be to make easy and instructive a comparative study 
of similar reports from other cities, and to enable 
the citizen to recognize, in the report, any dollar of 
which he knows the history, and to learn the history 
of any other dollar that he may wish to know. To 
the ultimate advantage of both the cities and the 
schools, the schools could cooperate with public- 
spirited citizens who have already accomplished 
much in this direction. The books of city auditors 
could be handled in the same way as described for 
the books of municipal works. 

A large number of persons believe that one might 
as well employ a lot of frisky colts in a municipal 
works as to employ young men between sixteen and 
twenty years of age. The fact remains, nevertheless, 
and we wish to reiterate it, that a large majority of 
selected young men of the ages mentioned, after 
remarkably little practice, can be taught to do half 
a day's work of a rather complicated nature fully 
as well as the average man can do this work, and 
sometimes even better. If we choose young men 
from sixteen to twenty years of age who have made 
a good school record for themselves through the first 
eight or ten grades, young men who have acted sens- 
ibly since leaving school, and if we start a fresh 
group each year in a public works high school and 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 81 

a municipal works, at the end of eight years, when 
the first set who have taken the full course graduate, 
we shall see a works operated by young men who are 
a credit to the schools and who are doing justice to 
the city employing them. After a municipal works 
has been operated by public works high school stu- 
dents for ten years, it would not be unreasonable to 
expect that the results accomplished by the average 
student of twenty years, in five hours of daily labor, 
would equal what is accomplished in eight hours or 
even more by the average laborer at the present time. 
This result would not necessarily be brought about 
through unusual ability shown by the student, but 
through the better systemization of the work and 
the greater publicity. This systemization and pub- 
licity will result in the saving of labor, and in the 
discovery of the true measure of work per hour that 
the average man can reasonably be expected to do. 
In municipal works that can avail themselves of 
self-supporting college students, the results would 
of course be still better. 

What one frequently sees ambitious young men 
doing to earn their way through high school in four 
years' time, is sufficient encouragement for the be- 
lief that the average young man, if given proper and 
fairly paid half-time employment, could easily earn 
his own living expenses, as weU as the monthly school 



32 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

fees necessary to cover his share of the running ex- 
penses of the school, and finish a complete public 
works high school course in eight years with half- 
time attendance. Of course he would have to prac- 
tice economy, live a pure, healthy, simple life, and 
spend his wages for right things, — all of which 
practice tends towards greater happiness. It be- 
comes relatively easy to live in this way when one 
is at work obtaining an education. 

Making allowances for previous school training, 
a careful study of a number of self-sustaining stu- 
dents, as compared with those supported by their 
parents or friends, would, as a rule, be convincing 
proof that the best way to obtain a high-school edu- 
cation is to work for it. It is true that young men, 
if ambitious and capable, can develop their minds 
and gain a store of knowledge outside of school 
and without teachers, and they frequently do this. 
This independent development is, however, impos- 
sible except for the most capable boys, and even 
these cannot gain it so well and so quickly as they 
could in an institution of learning equipped for the 
purpose, and with the incentive of working in com- 
pany with zealous f eUow-students, — the only kind 
that should be tolerated in the public works high 
schools or in any high school. 

Taxes could not become an obstacle to the es- 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 33 

tablishing of public works high schools because, 
after the schools are in working order, the students 
would be required to pay tuition which eventually 
could be made sufficient to cover all operating ex- 
penses. The public would construct the buildings, 
supply the first educational and other necessary 
appliances, and pay the deficit in operating expenses 
until the school came into full operation. Under 
a highly developed industrial and economic pro- 
gramme, the payment of these operating expenses by 
the students would be an easy matter. If, in time, 
every young man and young woman eligible to the 
public works high school were to apply for entrance, 
it ought not to cost the public more per capita gradu- 
ally to build and start the larger number of schools 
required than it would cost both to build and to 
maintain the comparatively limited number of free 
high schools that would be required under a con- 
tinuation of the present system. 

Laboring men and others now employed by the 
cities in municipal works should bear in mind that 
the founding of public works high schools would 
at best be a very slow process, and that relatively 
few of the employees would be displaced by the 
students. In any city having several municipal 
works, there would probably be enough vacancies 
and new positions at any time to accommodate 



34 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

all old employees that miglit be displaced by stu- 
dents taken into the first works in which the pub- 
lic works high school experiment might be tried. 
As the field of operation of the school would ex- 
tend by slow degrees from works to works, old em- 
ployees would drop out by natural processes, and 
thus make ample room for the student employees. 
It is clear that the effect of the public works high 
school on the employees of municipal works would 
be no more than an occasional inconvenience. 

The effect on the general labor market produced 
by the introduction of public works high schools 
would be but slight, for it has virtually the same 
effect whether young men work half time from six- 
teen to twenty-four years of age, or full time from 
twenty to twenty-four. Most young men who are 
not attending school should be at work full time 
when eighteen years of age. In addition to this, 
some public works high school students would not 
begin attendance at school until twenty years 
old, and then would work only half time until 
twenty-eight years old, thus taking eight years of 
half time off the market. The school therefore 
would reduce, instead of increase, the supply of 
labor on the general labor market. Furthermore, 
these students working half time would of necessity 
spend the greater part of their earnings locally. 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 35 

For these reasons the school could have hardly a 
temporary effect on even the local labor market, 
not to mention the general market.^ Of the possi- 
ble effects on the labor market referable to pub- 
lic works high schools, none appear to be bad ; but 
if there could be aiiy bad effects, they must appear 
very trifling when compared with the good that 
these schools would do laboring men through 
their children. There is no reason for believing 
that laboring men care less for their children than 
do the more wealthy. Many laboring men feel 
keenly their inability to send their children to 
high school. 

If the public works high school should prove to 
be as valuable as we believe it would be, and if this 
high school system should become general, all mu- 
nicipal industrial activities would be purified under 
the scrutiny of the school, so that even private 
business would discover a good example in the 
management of the municipal works and would 
gradually rise to the new standard. After the public 

^ Under an ideal economic system there could be no condition 
that would result in other than a temporary local oversupply of 
labor pending readjustment. The demand for labor would increase 
in proportion to the increase in workers, because each worker 
would create a demand for products practically equal to his in- 
dustrial output. The pviblic works high school is suggested as an 
important element in bringing about such an economic system. 



36 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

at large liad had some experience in municipal busi- 
ness, industrial delinquents in all fields, whether 
employers or employees, would be quickly dis- 
tinguishable from the men who do capably, and 
without extortion or theft, their share of the world's 
work. The public works high school would, event- 
ually, raise the intellectual and moral standard of 
humanity so high that there would be no danger of 
retrogression, because people who understand a 
nobler life clearly enough to appreciate it will never 
be satisfied with the lower ideal. 

The public works high school would remove a 
burden from the parents by aiding their children 
of over sixteen years of age to earn both living 
and education. It would be a great satisfaction 
for parents to feel certain that their children, if 
fairly healthy and strong, would have an opportun- 
ity to obtain a good education through their own 
efforts. All parents who desire to send their child- 
ren to high school, but who cannot do so, or who 
have a hard struggle to do so, would appreciate the 
benefit that the public works high school would be 
to them. By reason of the school, such parents 
would have more time for recreation and for plea- 
surable mental improvement, and would be more 
companionable to their children. The truer mutual 
love between the more enlightened parents and 



PUBLIC WOEKS HIGH SCHOOLS 37 

their more enlightened children would raise the 
standard of the home, and every evil known to 
social science would be just so much nearer cor- 
rection. 

Every one should earn enough money for the ne- 
cessities of life, for recreation, and for further de- 
velopment. If a man is to become better acquainted 
with the world, and become a worthy part of it, he 
should have money and time for books and for other 
aids in learning. In order to grow, a man must 
not only earn more money than is necessary to 
cover the mere necessities of life, but he must also 
learn to spend this surplus money to good advan- 
tage ; and he must earn the money during such 
hours per day as will leave a few hours daily for 
recreation and for development. It is also essential 
that be know how to use this spare time to good 
advantage in order to realize from it worthy ad- 
vancement. With most persons, as said before, 
it is absolutely necessary that the education be 
commenced while young, and that it be received 
in a school which offers at least the usual high 
school studies. The public works high school plan 
would provide experience that would teach the stu- 
dent how to study, earn, save, spend, and live ; and 
it would make a livelihood obtainable by all with 
fewer hours of daily labor than are now required. 



38 PUBLIC WOEKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

While speaking of leisure time and the best way 
of employing it, the following plan is suggested as 
a practicable one for the summer vacations of stu- 
dents of the public works high school. During 
this vacation the students would have one half -day 
free every day, as they would be employed at the 
works only in the forenoon or afternoon, except 
during the last weeks, when they would be required 
to take, from the prior set of students, such instruc- 
tion as would prepare them for their duties at 
the works during the next school year. Instead of 
working half time each day, the students might 
remain at their work fuU time for half their vaca- 
tion, one set during the first half, the other set 
during the second half, and then join an out-of-door 
summer class of forty or fifty on camping trips 
under the guidance of a public works high school 
instructor, whose duty it would be to teach nature 
studies. In all cases where the students' financial 
condition would permit, the remaining vacations 
could also be turned to some pleasurable and good 
use. 

Have you tried to realize the latent happiness in 
this plan ? Eventually, almost every young person 
of public works high school age would be at work in 
some municipal business five hours, and would be 
attending school three hours per day ; he would be 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 89 

virtually self-supporting, and at tlie same time 
would be developing a keen intelligence ; he would 
be in good and bappy student company for eight 
years, and after eight years of such excellent train- 
ing, he would come out as a first-class citizen to 
take his place in a community of a high order. 
Those graduates who might wish to enter a busi- 
ness career would, without special training, be well 
prepared to fill any ordinary position and to ad- 
vance in this position. Those who might desire a 
professional or further business training in coUege 
would be in excellent mental condition to begin 
this training. Others who choose to be artisans, 
with a remarkably short apprenticeship, would be- 
come proficient. In order to fit such students to 
become artisans, the eighth or both the seventh and 
the eighth year of the school course, as the case 
might require, could be confined largely to trade 
courses which would give both manual and text- 
book training. 

Let us take the plumber's trade, for example. 
The students choosing it could be given manual 
training of much practical value, also lessons from 
a technical school book on the subject. These stu- 
dents might also be required to read a trade journal 
on plumbing. One or two years of half-time school 
attendance confined to plumbing and the studies 



40 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

related to this subject would prepare the young 
man to such a degree that he would be sought by 
employers. The student's careful training in ele- 
mentary hygiene, sanitation, and chemistry, in ad- 
dition to the more general studies, has fitted him 
to continue study on scientific lines, if he should 
feel so inclined, until he makes himself a master 
of sanitation, chemistry, and other related sciences. 
A capable man could use aU his ability for a life- 
time in the endeavor to master the important things 
there are to know about plumbing and the sciences 
that bear on it ; in inventing new plumbing devices ; 
or in discovering new scientific facts in regard to 
the trade. A journeyman plumber having a public 
works high school education on which to build has 
quite as good opportunities to make himself re- 
spected and valued as he could have in any other 
position in life. Similar argument could be made 
in favor of carpentry, house-painting and decorat- 
ing, drafting, pattern-making, machine-building, 
and other trades. 

Each city of sufficient size to have at least one 
well-attended high school would, after the general 
introduction of the public works high school, have 
a number of the latter institutions, and the trade 
courses could be so arranged that no two schools 
would teach the same trades. In this way the stu- 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 41 

dents in such cities would be given the choice of a 
number of occupations. 

With the introduction of public works high 
schools, high schools would not, as now, consist 
principally of young men and young women of 
well-to-do families. Relatively poor children who 
now leave school at the close of the eighth grade 
would attend the public works high school in large 
numbers. Many children who now leave school 
after the sixth and seventh grades would then 
strive to continue at school through the eighth 
grade, and would afterwards enter the public works 
high school. 

Now we come to the question, could the students 
do work of enough value in five hours per day to 
earn their personal expenses, including their pro- 
portionate share of the running expenses of the 
school? Many sixteen-year-old students are now 
entirely self-supporting, so the question may be con- 
sidered settled for almost all other students who are 
in good physical condition. If parents can easily af- 
ford to do so, there would be no objection to their ren- 
dering aid to make the student life of their child- 
ren more effective and comfortable, but too much 
aid should be avoided. Members of well-to-do fami- 
lies will be likely to believe that sixteen-year-old 
boys should not work; these members will object 



42 PUBLIC WOKKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

to such steady occupation as our plan makes nec- 
essary. The public works high school would require 
the seK-supporting student to work five hours per 
day six days of the week every week in the year, 
except the few weeks of the summer vacations, and 
would require him to attend school three hours per 
day about forty weeks of the year. As our schools 
are at present conducted, sixteen-year-old boys of 
well-to-do families are now attending school six 
hours per day for forty weeks of the year, and it 
is doubtful whether it would not be better for 
them to do reasonable work for five hours in 
place of three of the hours of daily school at- 
tendance. During the forty school weeks, the dif- 
ference in hardships between attending a public 
works high school and the present high school 
would be slight. 

Now let us examine the details of this question. 
Can the students earn enough by R\e hours' work 
a day to pay their entire expenses ? In cities where 
the ruling wages for common labor in munici- 
pal works is twenty-five cents per hour, the fol- 
lowing figures would, approximately, hold good. 
The figures given would apply where the public 
works high school is of sufficient size for economi- 
cal operation. For young men away from home, 
cooperative boarding clubs could furnish suitable 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 43 

meals at $2.50 per week ; many college boarding 
clubs are doing this now, and in some instances 
they furnish board at even a lower rate. A mother 
who is a good manager might possibly board her 
son by increasing her household expenses only 
$2.00 per week, especially if he did what he could 
to accomplish this result; and she could give a 
small, plainly furnished room, with heat and light, 
at fifty cents per week, and do the laundry work 
at forty cents per week, if the young man was 
sensibly economical and would occasionally help her 
with the work. An operating expense of $60 a year 
for each full-time student is more than many high 
schools are allowed, and this amount permits of the 
maintenance of the equipment and the employ- 
ment of efficient teachers ; therefore, $30 a year for 
each half-time student is what we will allow. A 
young man who has learned how to buy and care 
for clothes can dress himseK comfortably and pre- 
sentably for $65 or $70 a year. For text-books 
and other school requisites, stationery, toilet 
articles, car fares, amusements, church, and other 
necessary expenses, we have estimated $50. These 
figures make a total for annual expenses of $300, 
or about $6 per week, as shown by the following 
table : — 



44 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

ESTIMATED COST OF A TEAR'S MAINTENANCE AT SCHOOL FOR A 
STUDENT LIVING AT HOME, BUT PAYING HIS PARENTS THE 
ACTUAL COST OF BOARD, ROOM, AND LAUNDRY 

Board at $2.00 a week, per year $104.00 



Room with light and heat at 50 cents a week " 


26.00 


Laundry at 40 cents a week, " 


" 20.80 


School tuition, for half-time attendance, " 


" 30.00 


Clothing, 


70.00 


School books and other items, " 


" 50.00 



$300.80 

The figures just given and those following are 
based partly on calculation, and partly on reports 
of the actual experience of a number of boys and 
young men who are earning their way through high 
schools in California. 

Not all young men sixteen years old who might 
desire to attend a public works high school have 
homes where they can live in this way. Eoom, 
board, and laundry would be likely to cost these 
young men a little more. Dormitories built by the 
city, or by voluntary societies formed for the pur- 
pose, could provide suitable rooms furnished with 
the heavy pieces only, steam heated, and of a size 
to accommodate two students, at a rental of 14.50 
per month ; this figure is so calculated as to pay 
repairs and to yield a net income of four per 
cent annually if the property is held free from all 
taxation. Where economy is an object, good and 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 45 

ample municipal light need not cost more than 
sixty cents per month. The student could get along 
with fifty cents per week and even less for laun- 
dry, if the work was done at special school rates. 
If the public works high school should be estab- 
lished, thousands of willing minds wiU invent ways 
to make the students' living less expensive and 
better. 

ESTIMATED COST OF A TEAb's MAINTENANCE AT SCHOOL FOR A 
STUDENT LrVING AWAY FROM HOME 

Board at club $2.50 a week, per year $130.00 

Half of room and heat at $4.50 a montli for two, 

Half of light at 60 cents a month for two. 

Laundry at 50 cents per week, 

School tuition, for half-time attendance, 

Clothing, 

School books and other items, 



27.00 
3.60 
26.00 
30.00 
70.00 
50.00 

$836.60 



This amounts to practically f 6.50 per week. 

The student, by taking a smaller room alone, 
would increase his expenses about $1 per month, 
thus making his weekly expenses amount to about 
$6.75. The room rents given include only the 
heavy furnishing of the rooms. Our figures do not 
include the care of the rooms; the young men 
would have to care for them, but this would not 
be difficult, as the rooms and the main pieces of 
furniture would invariably be built for easy clean- 



46 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

ing. In order to cover these yearly expenses with 
sufficient certainty, allowing for a few days off for 
possible sickness, accident, or other imperative rea- 
sons, the student might have to earn and to receive 
in wages as much as $1 a week of six five-hour 
days, or about $364 a year. In addition to this, 
every student should enter with $50. With part of 
this amount he could buy his room furnishings, 
and the remainder he could hold in reserve for 
emergencies. He should also come with a full 
supply of clothing. This $50 and enough more 
to buy a supply of clothing, the progressive boy 
could, if necessary, earn and save in the time be- 
tween finishing the eighth grade and entering the 
public works high school. 

Now, the question remains, could selected young 
men of sixteen years, who had passed at least the 
eighth grade, earn the $1 in a week of five-hour days? 
Investigation shows that they could earn it in the 
majority of cases, and with economy to the public. 
Furthermore, they could be given twenty-five cents 
per hour the second year, thirty cents per hour the 
third year, and forty cents per hour for all the 
remaining years, and this with profit to the public. 
In localities where living expenses are lower than 
those given in our schedules, the wages would, no 
doubt, be relatively lower. Forty cents per hour 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 47 

would give the older students $2 for eacli five-hour 
day, and of these students nineteen out of every 
twenty would be well worth their hire. Two dol- 
lars per day, under present price conditions, would 
permit of considerable saving. If 82 were paid for 
each five-hour day beginning with the fourth school 
year, by the sixth year the wise users of money 
could safely undertake marriage, so far as money 
is concerned, and if the young woman is also a good 
financier, there would, with ordinary good fortune, 
be enough income for both to live comfortably while 
the young man is completing his school course. 

Objection may be made to this plan because the 
public works high school would not be an entirely 
free school. It would be a free school as far as 
buildings, equipment, and the means required to 
put it on a self-sustaining basis are concerned. 
Some think it would be a step backwards to require 
tuition, but when a municipality supplies work to 
young people of sixteen to twenty-eight years of 
age at which they can earn sufficient wages, they 
ought, in justice, to pay the necessary tuition. Would 
it not be wise, if only for the moral effect, to re- 
quire the student to pay tuition ? We believe that 
the public should pay the expenses of operation only 
when it will not supply the students with work. 

It is simply a physical impossibility for the ma- 



48 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

jority of parents to bear the expense of maintain- 
ing their children through a high-school course. 
Even the general public could not, without great 
hardship, bear the cost of maintenance for such a 
large number of high-school students; the build- 
ing and maintaining of the increased number of 
schools would be a heavy burden for many tax-payers. 
It is evident that the youth must earn their own 
maintenance, and this maintenance should finally 
include tuition sufficient for the operation of the 
schools. When, in addition, one considers that the 
municipality gives the student an opportunity to 
support and educate himself and that full self-sup- 
port is valuable schooling second to none, the objec- 
tion to tuition is answered. 

In brief, the main features of the plan proposed 
in this article are as follows : the establishment of 
special high schools ; the selection of the best avail- 
able students as employees in municipal works ; the 
arrangement of the duties in these works so as to 
advance the student in his occupation by progress- 
ive steps and thus give him experience in as many 
branches of the business as practicable ; the intro- 
duction into the curriculum of each of these schools 
of a course that teaches the operation of the partic- 
ular works employing the students of the school ; 
as far as feasible, the detailed study of the current 



PUBLIC WOKKS HIGH SCHOOLS 49 

accounts of the works by the bookkeeping classes 
of the schools ; the requiring of five hours of effi- 
cient labor and three hours of satisfactory school 
attendance, or such other division of time as 
might be more satisfactory; the payment of the 
operating expenses of the schools by the students ; 
the payment to the students of wages such as will 
a little more than cover a fixed rate of living and 
school expenses, provided the boys will fuUy earn 
such wages. 

Two objections that have been offered to the 
public works high school plan, objections not pre- 
viously referred to, are that the schools will cause 
a scarcity of laborers to do the common work, and 
that general municipal and other public ownership 
will cause a loss of individuality, and a lowering of 
character. 

Many believe that a general distribution of second- 
ary education would so reduce the number of day 
laborers that there would be too few to do the world's 
common work. They fear that, whenever there are 
relatively few laborers who are capable of doing no 
other than the common work, general material pro- 
gress will be seriously retarded. Such fears are 
imfounded. As popular intelligence increases, the 
wages for common work will advance in relation to 
other wages, and more inventive power will be spent 



50 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

on devices to perform such work by machinery. It 
may at times baffle the inventive powers of men to 
improve some of the more disagreeable occupations 
so as to make them agreeable ; but a better enlight- 
ened people will solve future problems of this na- 
ture fully as well as we solve those of the present 
time. Many who fear a lack of common laborers 
as the result of more general education also fear 
that the immigration of large numbers of the less 
enlightened of other races to do our common work 
would be encouraged. This encouragement of im- 
migration would result in more serious race ques- 
tions than at present exist, and would, in the end, 
no doubt, cause much unhappiness for ourselves 
and for the foreign races. Large corporations 
employ thousands of laborers from the Orient, and 
individual citizens employ in the aggregate other 
thousands to do their common work. Why should 
we fear that this condition will grow worse instead 
of better when the public becomes more intelligent 
and therefore more able to see a danger in its true 
light? 

The belief is common that public ownership of 
public utilities is undesirable, even if honest and 
capable employees are engaged in the work. If pub- 
lic ownership becomes general, it is feared that it 
will endanger our individuality, weaken our char- 



PUBLIC WOEKS HIGH SCHOOLS 51 

acter, and destroy individual effort and ambition. 
It is believed that the average man, as soon as he 
has obtained a fairly secure position in public work, 
develops a tendency to degenerate in character and, 
therefore, in economic worth. Sooner or later a tend- 
ency toward graft develops. Sometimes this graft 
extends to cash or property transactions; more 
often it is a matter of misappropriating time, and, 
again, it is only an unconscious but gradual re- 
duction of the energy put into the work. This 
tendency in many men of the present time to de- 
generate in public service is used as a popular 
argument against public ownership. It is, how- 
ever, an argument which the growth in efficiency, 
resulting from institutions like the public works 
high school, would soon overcome. 

It is an open question whether that which we 
here refer to as degeneration in character is not 
merely an uncovering of previously formed charac- 
ter. There can be little doubt that the private em- 
ployer endeavors to keep a close watch over his 
employees, whereas the public employer is at pre- 
sent less vigilant. When an employee slackens his 
energy because watchfulness has been modified or 
removed, he does not degenerate in character, — he 
merely exposes his real character. Character that 
impels to duty only under close watchfulness indi- 



62 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

cates slavishness ; is a worthless type of character, 
and stands for a poor kind of individuality. The 
feeling of joint ownership in municipal works that 
the average employee would have under a system 
of general municipal ownership, would surely tend 
toward higher individuality than does the intense 
watchfulness of the private employer, and the pre- 
sent feeling of distrust between employee and em- 
ployer. 

Desirable individuality implies good character 
and ambition, and we shall use the word individu- 
ality in this sense. Since it is our differing indi- 
vidualities that make life progressive and interest- 
ing, the development of individuality should be 
fostered. The greatest field for this development 
is among the less educated workers who are willing, 
or who can be taught to be willing, to earn a high 
school education. In order to make such an educa- 
tion possible, the young workers, while attending 
school, must have steady employment and just re- 
muneration. Municipal and other public ownership, 
properly conducted, is the only plan now in view 
that could supply employment to these young work- 
ing students. 

Because of weakness of character, the man of 
the present time has not always given efficient serv- 
ice in municipal works. As at present conducted. 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 53 

employment in many municipal works does not of- 
fer enough personal incentive ; the business is not 
given enough publicity, and the public is too indif- 
ferent. In order that municipal ownership may 
meet with the greatest success, men must be em- 
ployed who are above the present average in char- 
acter ; more personal incentive must be introduced ; 
the business must be given greater publicity ; and 
the public must grow more interested in the opera- 
tion of the works. 

All this, we believe, could be brought about by 
means of the public works high school. The stu- 
dents would invariably be young men who desire a 
high school education, who are willing to work 
for it and who are capable of maintaining a good 
standing in school. These qualifications would ex- 
clude most of those who are unfit for service in 
municipal works. The students in public works 
high schools would be young and hopeful men ; 
they would have good records to make, both in the 
school and in the works, and their object in the 
works would be not only to earn wages, but also 
to learn thoroughly a manufacturing business and 
general business methods. Without a good record, 
they would not be sought by employers, public or 
private. Students would have no life positions in 
the works ; their positions would be subject to effi- 



54 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

ciency, and would ordinarily last but eight half-years. 
Through the school, the operation of the municipal 
works would be given the greatest possible pub- 
licity. As more and more of the needs of the indi- 
vidual were met through municipal works, the 
public would become so vitally affected by the 
operation of these works that the keenest interest 
would inevitably follow. The periodical financial 
reports of public works, made with the aid of the 
public works high school for the purpose of com- 
parative study, would act as one means of pre- 
venting stagnation in these works. One of our best 
known political economists says, " Young people 
have a keener sense of right and justice and a 
sharper scent for graft or ' puU ' than have their 
elders." 

Before the first class had graduated from the 
public works high school, students, by reason of 
their moral development, would consider it unjust 
to shirk a duty. Although the laziness of the few 
might increase the cost of living for all others only 
to a slight degree, the spirit of fair play and the 
dislike of being imposed upon would quickly arouse 
the resentment of the manly students and of the 
educated and interested public. No industrial de- 
linquent would be tolerated, for fear that the effect 
of such toleration would endanger the permanency 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 55 

of municipal ownership, and the consequent pro- 
spect of a more equitable distribution of education 
and of wealth. The student would understand that 
the first requirement on his part to aid in the ex- 
termination of the shirker class would be to avoid 
being a shirker himself. In short, the pupils 
admitted into the public works high school would 
soon develop such self-respect and strength of 
character that eventually there would be no 
shirkers in the works. These students would under- 
stand that every lazy and unscrupulous act would 
be an act of treason in peace, which is virtually the 
same as treason in war. The students, especially 
the older ones, would understand all these things 
so clearly that right conduct on their part would 
be inevitable. That student is rare who wiU do a 
wrong act if he clearly sees what is right, and at 
the same time can picture and compare a train of 
probable consequences of the wrong act and of the 
right one. This ability would be strongly developed 
in most young men by a public works high school 
course. 

In order to arrive at the best results sooner than 
could otherwise be expected, some kind of regular 
course in moral instruction should be introduced 
into all elementary grades. Jane Brownlee's plan 
for moral training as developed in one of the To- 



56 PUBLIC WOKKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

ledo public schools is, without question, most valu- 
able.^ This moral training requires a few minutes 
daily, but it is reported as saving more time than it 
requires, as it leads to readier obedience among the 
pupils and to greater efficiency in their work. By 
the end of the eighth grade, all moral training 
in the schools should be so effectual as to result in 
unquestioned civic honor. 

The largest proportion of selected students 
would stand for individuality and ambition. No 
other incentive to do duty other than fair compen- 
sation would be required. Individuality and happi- 
ness with such students would not be based on how 
much municipal work could be shirked, nor on how 
much more than deserved wages could be obtained. 
These students would prefer to be strong, quick of 
perception, well informed, highly proficient and 
respected men, rather than to be rich men of medi- 
ocre character. Wealth, beyond the needs of pre- 
sent usefulness and comfort with a modest reserve 
for old age, would be less prized by such men. Un- 
necessary wealth would seem of less consequence 
than exceptional efficiency in some field of activity. 
This is true at present of some of our strongest 

1 Jane Brownlee's system of moral training is explained in a 
pamphlet entitled The Brownlee System of Child Training, which 
can be obtained from G. W. Holden, Springfield, Mass. Price ten 
cents. 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 57 

professional men. Most of us have heard that 
Agassiz, when offered ten thousand doUars for a 
course of lectures, exclaimed in surprise at the 
offer, " I have n't time to make money! " There are 
but few like Agassiz in this respect, but a second- 
ary education, more generally distributed, would 
tend to raise the standard of manhood above that 
of mere money-making. The result would be 
stronger individuality, better character, and more 
earnest citizenship. 

Every hour of industrial activity, whether per- 
formed for one's self, for others, or for the public, 
affects individuality and character; every hour 
spent in the pursuit of knowledge, social inter- 
course, or any other pleasure, does likewise. In 
devising a plan to promote individuality and char- 
acter, all of these forms of activity must be taken 
into consideration. To consider the effect of the 
industrial part of any plan of life, without taking 
into account the equally important effects of other 
activities on individuality and character, would re- 
sult in incorrect conclusions. Secondary education, 
if thoroughly assimilated, would tend to make men 
more nearly of the same intellectual and economic 
value, — a value higher than at present, — and it 
would follow as a natural consequence, and justly so, 
that there would be a readjustment of individual 



58 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

earnings. Two persons may be of approximately the 
same economic and social value, and yet be units of 
entirely different natures ; in other words, they may 
have strikingly different individualities. Knowledge 
is as boundless as nature, and it is knowledge that 
largely differentiates individuality. Even those who 
accumulate knowledge to the limit of human ca- 
pacity learn only an infinitesimal part of all there 
is to know. We start in the world unhke, seeking 
different knowledge, seeking it in different ways, 
and under different circumstances. Two persons 
would rarely accumulate, even approximately, a like 
store of knowledge. It therefore follows that the 
more we know, the more our individualities are 
differentiated ; the less we know, the nearer alike 
we are. The individuality that might be lost by 
reason of municipal ownership continued along the 
present lines, if this ownership is as detrimental to 
individuality as is maintained by some, would be 
more than regained through a public works high 
school education. But municipal ownership with 
workers that are self-supporting students would be 
a builder instead of a destroyer of character, and 
strength of character is an expression of more 
marked individuality. 

Can a person who has conscientiously educated 
himself by eight years of effort ever lose indi- 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 59 

viduality or ever stop its expression ? Surely not, so 
long as he can supply his material needs by five or 
even eight hours of daily labor, and thus leave from 
sixteen to nineteen free hours in which to exercise 
his individuality without restriction. When our in- 
dustrial methods are less wasteful and when the 
products of labor are more equitably distributed, 
five fully occupied hours of energetic and intelligent 
work in store, office, or factory, together with work 
at home for personal needs, will furnish ample means. 
Whatever increases our free hours increases the 
opportunity to develop our individuality. 

Let us picture a possible extension of municipal 
ownership due to the effects of public works high 
schools, and the influence of such extended owner- 
ship on individuality. After ten years of trial, a 
public works high school experiment may prove to 
be a success. If it does so prove, a limited number 
of cities may make a trial of the plan, and, if these 
trials prove successful, the plan may be so widely 
adopted that in the course of fifty years municipal 
ownership in connection with these schools may be- 
come quite general. Should municipal ownership, so 
conducted, become general, it would follow that the 
students would no longer be numerically sufficient 
to man the works. It would then be necessary to 
permit the students to remain in the employ of the 



60 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

works after graduating.* It no doubt would be safe 
to extend the field of municipal industry as long as 
either students or graduates of the public works 
high school are available as employees. If in the 
future fifty per cent of all workers were employed 
in municipal works, would our individuality, our 
character, our effort, or our ambition suffer? In 
answer we shall assume the following to be the 
experience of two young men, A and B, living in 
an era of general municipal ownership and public 
works high schools. 

We wiU suppose that A is graduated from the 
tenth and B from the twelfth grade of the public 
works school in the year 1940. There is at that time 
a demand for employees in the municipal works far 
beyond that which the school can supply, so both 
A and B take the municipal service examinations. 
A passes an examination as ordinary accountant, 
and this examination entitles him to a choice of a 
number of positions in industries operated by the 
municipalities. B passes as general expert account- 
ant and Master of Gas Making, which entitles him 
to a situation as chief bookkeeper in any municipal 

^ The plan for the public works high school provides that no 
graduate shall be employed in the municipal works, unless special 
fitness adapts him to one of the few positions which are of neces- 
sity permanent, or unless there is a demand for workers beyond 
that which the school can supply with its undergraduates. 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 61 

office, or as manager of municipal gas works ; his 
examination also entitles him to simpler work, 
should there be no higher position available. 

Let us follow A. He prefers work as a book- 
keeper, so he goes to the State Employment Office^ 
and learns that no bookkeeping situation is available 
in the city in which he wishes to live, but he is told 
of a temporary position as a copyist ; this position 
he accepts, but he leaves his application for a posi- 
tion as bookkeeper. After a month the Employment 
Office notifies A that a situation as bookkeeper is 
now available. He accepts the position, but after 
three months' trial by the chief accountant, he is 
found unsatisfactory and is reported to the Oper- 
ating Committee.^ This committee finds A's work 
unsatisfactory, and he is discharged. 

^ The State Employment Office could be so serviceable tbat 
no one, except in rare instances, need be out of suitable employ- 
ment more than one day at a time. This office could also under- 
take to help those who desire to chang-e their occupations. Some 
might wish to learn the particulars of another line of work ; for 
others, a consideration of health or strength might make a change 
of employment desirable ; in other cases a mere feeling of rest- 
lessness might result in a desire for change. No one would be 
forced to do any work, except as necessity demanded ; but in the 
field of municipal work he would have to take his choice out of 
such available positions as his municipal service standing would 
warrant his holding. 

2 The Operating Committee under this system might be com- 
posed of three or more members, and every municipal enterprise 
might be supplied with such a committee. It would be the 



62 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

A then visits the Employment Office again, and 
learns that he can at once find work as clerk in 
a municipal dairy. He can do this work satisfac- 
torily, and it suits him ; so he holds the position 
during the remainder of his active life. In 1943, 
however, the general manager charges A with care- 
lessness in his work, and with failure to render 
a reasonable amount of service. The Operating 
Committee examines the case, and charges A with 
neglect of duty. A has a right to appeal his case 
to the Appeal Committee.^ He does this, but again 
loses. As punishment, he is suspended from work 
for three months. As he has saved no money, he is 
compelled to go from house to house to solicit work 
until his sentence expires. 

duty of this committee to publish bi-monthly reports of the busi- 
ness ; to see that employees render reasonable service ; to decide 
internal disputes afFecting the operation of the works ; and, wher- 
ever possible, to cheapen production. The manager of the works 
might be chairman of this committee. 

^ The duty of this supposed Appeal Committee would be to 
examine and to decide all appealed cases of employees charged 
with rendering poor service. Each Appeal Committee would have 
jurisdiction over a number of municipal works, would virtually 
be a court, and would rarely be called into service. Its principal 
use would be to enable any man who believed himself mis- 
treated or misunderstood to vindicate himself. The knowledge 
coming from considerable experience might be required to pro- 
duce a harmonious working between managers and both the 
Operating and Appeal Committees, but final results would justify 
the existence of these committees. 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 63 

In 1945 A decides to marry, and finds work in 
addition to that of his regular employment. This 
extra work ^ he does in order to furnish a home. He 
takes the required examination preliminary to mar- 
riage,2 but fails in some point of bodily development, 
and in a knowledge of the foundation principles of 
physiology and ethics. He remedies his bodily de- 
fect, informs himself upon the subjects of physiology 
and ethics, and in 1946 he marries. He takes out 
the minimum amount of old age and life insurance 
required by law for a married man. Had he per- 
sisted in the work of assistant bookkeeper and suc- 
ceeded, he would have been entitled to $3.50 per 
day of five hours. His work as dairy clerk yields 
him $3 per day of the same number of hours. A 
is not so vigorous as B ; therefore A requires ten 

^ The question of the legal length of work day would be largely 
eliminated. There would no longer be that feverish hurry to ac- 
cumulate money for future emergencies and for old age because 
men would have the certainty of employment, the protection of 
state life insurance, and the possible self-support of all children 
over sixteen years of age. This condition would result in fewer 
men working over-time except for special purposes, and there 
would be plenty of extra work on hand to supply such cases. The 
State Employment Office would be expected to see that every 
man is given not only work for the usual number of hours daily, 
but for as many additional hours as he may desire. 

2 We here assume that a marriage law compelling such exam- 
ination has been passed ; and that old age and life insurance poli- 
cies are required. 



64 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

hours of sleep each day, while B requires only seven 
hours. Here A, as compared with B, loses three 
hours of activity daily. A smokes inveterately, 
drinks moderately, and cannot resist spending 
money frivolously. He saves no money, and in 1950 
he is obliged to borrow money in order to tide his 
family over a time of sickness ; this debt he pays 
during the year by again doing work beyond the 
customary length of the work day. 

As stated before, B passes the municipal serv- 
ice examination in 1940, and makes an excellent 
record. After a short trial he is given a situation 
as chief bookkeeper in a municipal gas works. In 
1942 he is elected manager of a new and larger 
works built in another city. He enjoys his work, 
and keeps informed on all changes in the business ; 
he also invents several useful improvements. By 
1946 B is well known and well liked by all the mu- 
nicipal works managers of the state ; and, through 
their recommendation, he is elected to the State 
Public Works Board. ^ In 1948 he is elected 
chairman of this board. His first position in 1940 
entitled him to a salary of $4 per day ; his last 

^ This supposed State Public Works Board could be composed 
of fifteen members, one of whom, is the governor of the state, 
and ten of whom are managers of municipal works. The duty of 
this board could be the furthering of municipal works and the 
improving of the laws affecting such works. 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 65 

position yields him $20 daily. In 1949 B passes 
tlie marriage examination, and marries. He takes 
five times the minimum amount of old age and life 
insurance. By this time he has saved fifteen thou- 
sand dollars, with part of which he builds and fur- 
nishes a good home. By 1955 he has three children. 
He is not harassed by any unreasonably hard and 
exhausting business struggle, such as was the lot of 
many business men when competition was so keen 
that a man's time was entirely engrossed by his 
business. B is an active member of a social club 
established for scientific research ; he is also active 
in a political organization, in a national gas mana- 
ger's association, and in a number of other volun- 
tary organizations. 

B not only finds time to continue his education, 
but also to aid his wife in the proper training of 
their children. The average old-time business man 
lacked ripeness of education, and often the abil- 
ity to rear children properly. B is well informed 
on the economic history of the previous hundred 
years, and he is glad that old conditions no longer 
exist. Should his eighteen-year-old son read a his- 
torical novel the time of which extends from 1875 
to 1900, and ask his father to explain the changes 
that had taken place in economic conditions since 
that time, his reply might be much as follows : — 



66 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

" At the time of the story you were reading there 
was a popular saying, ' Competition is the life of 
trade.' Competition had been the life of trade, but 
the facilities for industrial production and com- 
merce had improved to such an extent as to make 
possible great concentration into large and finan- 
cially powerful business units. This concentration 
made possible greater individual reward to employ- 
ers for industrial and commercial success. Under 
conditions making this great concentration and ex- 
cessive individual reward possible, competition be- 
came fierce, and proved costly and even disastrous. 
At this time, competition always resulted either in 
a combination of the warring parties, or in a death 
struggle for supremacy. In either case, the prices 
of the products involved were very likely to be 
advanced for the purpose of exploiting the public. 
The usual run of men virtually lost their judg- 
ment when competition was destroyed and unusual 
profits were within reach. The managers of these 
combinations, with some exceptions, proved to be 
avaricious. In some way they conceived the idea 
that it was none of the public's business how much 
it had to pay for freight, passenger service, water, 
gas, electricity, meat, flour, and other necessities. 
The public, however, thought differently, and made 
stringent laws which in time resulted in the strict- 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 67 

est public supervision and control of privately 
owned public utilities. Public supervision and con- 
trol became continually more exacting, until it 
approximated public ownership. 

" In granting a franchise, the public usually re- 
served the right to purchase the privately owned 
public utility business at the end of twenty-five 
years, or at the end of every ten-year period there- 
after. The public also guaranteed a small profit, 
and set a figure for a maximum profit. All excess 
over this maximum profit was turned over to the 
Public Utilities Fund. Contrary to expectation, 
it became popular with the private corporations to 
have a surplus over this profit. This Public Util- 
ities Fund was introduced into many cities about 
1920. In these cities the public industries existing 
at the time of the starting of the fund were re- 
quired to pay into this fund annually, for thirty- 
three years, three per cent of their estimated 
value after deducting unpaid bonds. In some 
cases the prices of the products had to be in- 
creased slightly to meet this requirement. The 
fund was designed solely to build additional pub- 
lic industries on a cash basis. For a time much 
money had to be added to this fund by direct 
taxation ; now, however, the four per cent install- 
ments required to be paid into the fund annually 



68 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

by new works meet all demands for further con- 
struction. 

" The public also reserved the right, on due notice, 
to alter the rate of charges, always, however, mak- 
ing good any shortage below the fixed minimum of 
profit. The minimum annual profit was commonly 
fixed at two per cent and the maximum at fifteen 
per cent. Interest on capital invested was not al- 
lowed. As the conditions in any public industry 
changed, the rate of charges was changed as nearly 
as possible to correspond. The aim ordinarily was 
to allow eight per cent net profit for average ability 
in the operation of public utility enterprises. The 
rule providing a minimum profit of two per cent 
annually was intended as a protection to private 
owners against possible losses that might accrue as 
the result of the introduction of new inventions 
which would throw established plants into disuse. 
The rule of a low minimum profit, together with 
the extensive public supervision and control, fairly 
protected the public against the possibility of pri- 
vate owners' building plants which were uncertain 
as to permanency. 

" This public supervision of privately owned pub- 
lic utilities was not wholly satisfactory. The matter 
of fixing the amount of profit often had to be car- 
ried to the courts, and the decision was frequently 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 69 

unfair because graft, to a certain extent, still existed 
and influenced the testimony. By 1925 all states 
had passed laws requiring that each publicly owned 
enterprise must establish such prices for its product 
as would make the business entirely self-supporting. 
These laws also required that all money for the 
construction of municipal works must, in gradually 
increasing proportions, come from the Public 
Utilities Fund ; and that all construction money 
must be returned to this fund, without interest, in 
annual installments of four per cent of the original 
cost of the works. 

"Opposition to public ownership gave way by 
degrees. It was believed by many that municipal 
ownership weakened the character of the average 
man employed in the works. Gradually, it became 
apparent that those works in which self-supporting 
students were employed succeeded well. The works 
came to be regarded as a means for instructing these 
students in business methods, and as a place for 
them to establish their reputations for later life; 
so in time municipal works were regarded as builders 
of character. 

" In the year 1920 it became the general prac- 
tice to employ only students in the works, except 
in the limited number of permanent positions. In 
1925, owing to the increase in the number of mu- 



70 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

nicipal works, graduates were allowed to fill twenty 
per cent of the positions in these enterprises, and 
this percentage was increased until, in 1940, seventy 
per cent of graduates were employed ; but in no case 
were they employed where student labor was avail- 
able. This restriction was deemed wise as a check 
to the too rapid increase of municipal ownership. 
A limited number of men like A, who had left the 
school before graduating, but who succeeded in 
passing the required municipal service examinations, 
were employed in the more common positions when- 
ever neither students nor graduates could be se- 
cured. 

" As experience grew, the municipal service ex- 
aminations became more exacting and more prac- 
tical, so that eventually the standing made by the 
individual was a fair index of his ability and of his 
common sen se. All graduate employees were then, as 
now, considered out of employment every five years, 
and were obliged to take additional examinations. 
These quinquennial examinations could then, as 
now, be taken by any public works high school 
graduate whether or not he had been employed in 
the works giving the examination. Those standing 
highest were given the positions, with the exception 
that former employees were given the advantage of 
a few points. The workers who were superseded by 



PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 71 

the ones making a better standing readily found 
other work through the State Employment Office. 
The general public was imbued with the idea that 
progress depended upon every man's filling the place 
to which he was best suited. 

" Now, as you know, every law and every prac- 
tice is established with a view to encourage indi- 
viduality, ambition, and efficiency. The more equit- 
able adjustment of wages, and the increased oppor- 
tunity for secondary education, have been important 
factors in the social and economic progress of this 
century." 

These changes in economic conditions since 1900 
that B explained to his son are the possible results 
of general municipal ownership. Under this sys- 
tem the majority of voters might decide to fix wages 
too nearly alike for all, just as A's and B's wages 
were made to approximate rather closely, as com- 
pared with present standards, considering the nature 
of the services rendered by each. If such a wage sys- 
tem for municipal workers should be established, we 
could console ourselves with the fact that, with 
public works schools, the shirker would be quickly 
discovered. By reason of a more general distribu- 
tion of thorough secondary education, intellectual 
and industrial worth will be more general ; and the 



72 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

average earnings wiU be larger. The desire of 
most men to do the work that requires all their 
training, knowledge, and reasoning powers would 
tend toward the equalization of wages. For instance, 
the capable carpenter would rather do the work in 
a fine public structure at $4 per day than to build 
barns at the same wages. The capable manager 
would rather manage a large municipal electric light 
plant at $20 per day than, at equal wages, spend aU 
his working hours in reading the consumer's meters. 
It is apparent that a more general education, 
through which a larger number of men are trained 
to do the finer and more difficult work, tends to 
lessen the difference between the wages received 
for the common and coarser work, and those re- 
ceived for the finer and more difficult work. The 
greater desirability of any certain employment will 
largely constitute the greater reward. As there will 
be few positions with extremely high wages, men 
and women wiU choose occupations to which they 
are naturally adapted, and efficiency will thus be 
increased. 

It is highly improbable that wages will ever be 
arbitrarily equalized ; but even in the event of such 
equalization, B, for example, would not be discour- 
aged, though he might be a trifle handicapped, if 
he did not receive the wages he deserves as com- 



PUBLIC WOKKS HIGH SCHOOLS 73 

pared with the wages A receives for less valuable 
services. A's and B's regular work day, as before 
stated, would be five hours each ; this would leave 
nineteen free hours for each to use as he sees fit. 
As previously stated, B requires seven hours of 
sleep, while A requires ten hours. The remaining 
hours each could spend in such activity as he pleased, 
and out of these hours each would reap according 
to what he sowed, and would reap the entire pro- 
duct. Because of the difference in the ability and 
character of the men, B would obtain many times 
as much good out of his twelve free waking hours 
as A would obtain out of his nine corresponding 
hours. Out of these free hours each man would re- 
ceive all he creates ; he could use his individuality 
without limit, and no one else, as a matter of law 
or of custom, would receive the reward of the labor 
of these free hours. What one could do for himself 
in each free hour is quite as valuable as the best 
he could do for himself in each regular work hour, 
and is much more valuable than that done in any 
work hour spent in the mere accumulation of un- 
necessary wealth. 

If, in the course of time, the fixing of wages 
should become a public office, a community as in- 
telligent as the public works high schools would 
make it, would undoubtedly fix a varying remun- 



74 PUBLIC WORKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

eration for its different classes of work, and this 
remuneration would be on a just and practical basis 
which would encourage healthy ambition. Should 
there develop a social and economic condition under 
which a most capable man could not reasonably ex- 
pect to accumulate an abnormal fortune, as is pos- 
sible to-day, the incentive to accumulate the maxi- 
mum fortune that the economic conditions would 
permit would stiU be as effective a stimulant to 
this ambition, as that which exists to-day when 
conditions permit of vast accumulation of wealth. 

Under general municipal ownership and general 
secondary education, two lives of municipal work- 
ers as different as the lives of A and B would be 
easily possible. So great a difference, however, 
would be less common than it is at present, and 
more lives would be like that of B. The A's and 
B's would, as now, be living examples of what can 
be avoided and what gained by the right kind of 
effort. The probable result of such effort would be 
incentive enough to inspire improvement in char- 
acter and in worthy ambition, quite regardless of 
the question of earnings. We have even more ex- 
treme examples before us now than those of the 
lives of A and B, but we are too deficient in true 
secondary education and corresponding character 
to profit adequately by these examples. 



PUBLIC WOEKS HIGH SCHOOLS 75 

Wlien privately owned industries grow so large 
and powerful as to partake of the nature of mono- 
polies, the responsible positions are sometimes given 
to friends and relatives of the owners, regardless 
of the fitness of these persons to fill such positions. 
This nepotism takes away from many better minds 
the opportunity to develop individuality in indus- 
trial fields, and thus creates a condition which is 
fully as inimical to the development of individual- 
ity in both managers and laborers as are the con- 
ditions which are said ta exist under municipal 
ownership at the present time. 

Taking these several points into con-sideration, 
it does not seem probable that even the keenest 
minds in the field of public utilities would be 
retarded by a gradual introduction of municipal 
ownership. The field of private industry will still 
exist for those who prefer it ; but to insure success, 
private industry will require greater efficiency than 
at present. 

Again, we wish to say that with a thorough sys- 
tem of high-school educ^ition, the national character 
wiU be strengthened. This stronger national char- 
acter will not lead to an undesirable uniformity of 
thought. On the contrary, it will give free play to 
individual talents, and will lead to their full ex- 
pression. 



76 PUBLIC WOKKS HIGH SCHOOLS 

By the middle of this century our struggle for 
wealth wiU no longer be a matter of life-consuming 
battles, and the questionable development which 
results from such battles may have largely dis- 
appeared. The hard and unfair struggles of in- 
dustrial and commercial competition will be of less 
and less value as thorough secondary education be- 
comes more nearly universal. These struggles wiU 
be displaced by a finer, but no less difficult effort, — 
the effort to deserve and to receive the confidence 
and respect of one's fellow men. Under these new 
conditions we shall have time to give more atten- 
tion to our health ; time to gain a broader and 
more even development of our minds ; time to de- 
vote to the better training of our children ; and 
time to spare for the happiness of others. These 
gains will result in a stronger individuality. 



MANUFACTURING WORKS HIGH 
SCHOOLS' 

Progress, material, intellectual, and spiritual, de- 
pends upon the health of the individual, upon his 
memory, his power to reason, and his accumulation 
of interesting and valuable knowledge. It is the 
generally accepted belief that the reform agencies 
of the day can hope for success only through the 
further development of these qualities in the indi- 
vidual ; without their further development, advance- 
ment in wisdom becomes impossible. 

A store of valuable general knowledge necessarily 
includes a fair understanding of the laws of health, 
and such understanding must, to an ever increasing 
extent, be the foundation of individual and public 
health. The process of accumulating this store 
of general knowledge develops the memory and 
the reasoning power. So-called primary knowledge 

1 The article on Manufacturing Works High Schools for Young 
Women appeared in the Arena of March, 1908. This article is a 
reprint with the exception of slight changes. It is intended as 
complemental to the article on Public Works High Schools. The 
plan is equally applicable to young men students if the industry 
selected is adapted to them. 



78 MANUFACTURING WORKS 

is almost universally distributed, but so-called sec- 
ondary knowledge is enjoyed by comparatively 
few. Altbough without the primary there could be 
no secondary knowledge, it is upon the latter that 
we directly depend for advancement in wisdom. 
As it is only through a further advance in popular 
wisdom that the present and future problems of 
humanity can be satisfactorily solved, it is of 
the utmost importance that every young person 
should receive a secondary or high-school educa- 
tion. 

At the present time most of us gain our sec- 
ondary education through observation and reading, 
without guidance or system ; and we gain this at a 
later period in life than we should. When one con- 
siders that in well-managed high schools the teach- 
ing is done by specially trained instructors in sub- 
jects selected by experienced educators, and that 
these subjects are treated according to their relative 
importance in the student's development, it is evi- 
dent that the usual random studying is of little 
value as compared with systematic high-school 
training received at the most suitable age. How can 
every capable young person be induced to graduate 
from some thorough high school? This is the 
problem that outweighs all other reform prob- 
lems ; for, as just intimated, the final solution of 



HIGH SCHOOLS 79 

such problems depends on the wisdom of the in- 
dividual citizen. Without an early secondary edu- 
cation, growth in wisdom is seriously and perman- 
ently retarded. 

In trying to solve the problem under discussion, 
one of the principal points to consider is the obtain- 
ing of means necessary to build and maintain as 
large a number of high schools as would be required 
to accommodate practically every individual during 
the high-school period of his life. The public could 
do this if it were determined to do so, but the taxes 
would have to be increased, and they would become 
a hardship in many more instances than they are 
at present. In addition to the means required for 
the building and the operation of the schools, means 
would have to be provided for the full or partial 
maintenance of aU students whose parents could 
not fully maintain their children through a high- 
school course. Under present economic conditions, 
it would be impossible for the public to furnish this 
maintenance ; and if it were possible, it would be 
most harmful. 

It has been suggested that the public build and 
equip the high schools, put them in operation, and 
then let the students themselves pay the running 
expenses. This plan would be easy for the public 
and good for the students. As it is evident that 



80 MANUFACTURING WORKS 

the high-school students who could not or would 
not be maintained by their friends must provide 
their own maintenance, the question of supplying 
the students with remunerative employment be- 
comes a paramount one. 

One object of this article is to make a specific 
suggestion for the employment of young women 
students. We are told that many organized plans 
to supply students with employment for full self- 
support have been tried, and that all have failed. 
This, however, should be no reason for discourage- 
ment. So important is the problem that a score or 
more of experiments, all unsuccessful, might be 
considered profitable if they should finally lead to 
the discovery of a plan for the better distribution 
of secondary education. 

Among many industries with which the experi- 
ment might be tried, a practical one would prob- 
ably be found in knitting works for women's and 
children's underwear, as this industry seems to be 
one that is especially adapted for the employment of 
young women students. Any standard article that 
can be manufactured under healthful conditions, 
and for the making of which adequate remuneration 
can be given, would answer the purpose. A high 
school, that could properly be called a manufactur- 
ing works high school, and a knitting works might 



HIGH SCHOOLS 81 

be operated conjointly on lines similar to those sug- 
gested for the joint operation of public utility works 
and public works high schools described in the 
foregoing article. The public works high school is 
best suited for young men, while the present sug- 
gestion is for the education and employment of 
young women. As with young men, most young 
women of sixteen years or over would be benefited 
by earning their living and education, if the work 
is within reason and also instructive. 

The details regarding the school age, the study 
and work programmes, tuition for operating ex- 
penses, and like points could be adopted as de- 
scribed for public works high schools, with such 
modifications as would best suit a woman's school. 
Some prominent educators are confident that six 
years of this half-time school attendance would be 
ample to complete what at present constitutes a 
four years' high-school course. The more mature 
years that would be brought into the latter part 
of the course, the presumably better health due 
to the intermissions occupied by work, the better 
assimilation of the studies due to the more delib- 
erate progress of the entire course, — all would 
make it possible to take a regular four years' course 
in six half-time years. We shall here assume that 
such is the case. 



82 MANUFACTUKING WORKS 

The student who attends school full time during 
the ninth and tenth grades would ordinarily pass 
the tenth grade at sixteen years of age, and if she 
afterwards attends only in half-day session, she 
would require three years more to graduate, and 
would be nineteen years of age. The yoimg woman 
who enters the ninth grade at sixteen and goes 
through all the grades on a half-time schedule 
would graduate at twenty-two years of age. By far 
the larger number of young women would graduate 
at twenty-two or younger. Those who, by actual 
experience, learn the lesson of full self-support and 
all that necessarily goes with it, would be certain 
to gain much more from the school course than 
would the other students. 

In the article on public works high schools, an 
imaginary water works operated by self-supporting 
students is described. In the description of this 
water works a plan is given for an annual change 
of employment for the student workers. This change 
of work is suggested partly to avoid monotony, 
but principally to acquaint the student with the 
entire operation of the business from janitor up to 
manager. As far as it could be made to apply, 
this plan for changing work might be profitably 
adopted in the knitting works. The education of 
several years' duration obtained from a thorough 



HIGH SCHOOLS 83 

working study of a knitting factory or of any other 
business is most valuable and interesting. Such a 
complete knowledge of any manufacturing business 
is rare, and few can fully appreciate its value. The 
student workers would all become well informed 
in business methods, and it is probable that the 
experiences of such a course would, in later life, 
aid greatly in every cooperative effort of whatever 
nature. 

Many believe that young women under twenty 
years of age would not render adequate service to 
deserve wages necessary for self-support. Self-sup- 
porting young women who are students by choice 
would make unsurpassed workers. A study of knit- 
ting works would be made a part of the curriculum 
of the manufacturing works high school, thus every 
part of the operation of the works would come 
under the observation of instructors and students. 
Under such favorable conditions, the service ren- 
dered by the young women would be almost ideal. 

The works would in all probability be owned by 
a voluntary association of public-spirited citizens 
who would not operate them for profit other than a 
moderate and fixed net profit that would build up 
a surplus for expansion. This voluntary association 
of citizens would require full and clear business re- 
ports issued to the general public at regular inter- 



84 MA^UFACTUKING WOEKS 

vals. These reports and tlie actual bookkeeping 
could be made the regular course of study in tke 
bookkeeping classes of the school. In this way the 
general public, the instructors, and the students 
would become well acquainted with the details of 
the business, and this publicity would tend to in- 
crease the efficiency in the works. 

Young Women of sixteen years of age who are se- 
lected for ability above the average could earn enough 
in five hours at the knitting works to pay their per- 
sonal expenses and their proportionate share of the 
running expenses of the school. The young women 
under discussion would be willing to live simply ; 
and one dollar a day could be made to answer, if a 
supply of clothing, the lighter room furnishings, and 
about twenty-five dollars for books and emergencies 
were on hand. An energetic, capable young woman 
who tries to do her best, ought to be paid enough 
for five hours of labor to enable her to meet the 
necessary expenses of one day of such simple living. 
If she is not paid so much, others are living off her 
efforts. At the present time the women workers in 
privately-owned knitting works are not paid twenty 
cents per hour, and the established prices for knit 
goods may make wages at that rate impossible. The 
students' knitting works would be required to yield 
only a moderate profit to build up the surplus re- 



HIGH SCHOOLS 85 

ferred to, and the student workers would no doubt 
show greater average efficiency than do present 
workers; so that, notwithstanding better wages, it 
might be possible for a students' knitting works to 
sell its goods as cheaply as the same goods are now 
being sold. As is shown in the article on public 
works high schools, the effect of student workers 
on the general labor market would be in no way 
depressing. 

Some believe that five hours of daily work and 
three hours of school attendance would result in 
physical injury to many young women, but actual 
experience indicates the contrary. Whether it would 
be injurious or not, it would be less injurious than 
eight or ten hours of daily work such as those who 
would constitute the greater number of the self- 
supporting students now have to do. The work and 
surroundings in a students' works would probably 
be more healthful and pleasant than those of the 
average private factory. 

We wish to make a specific suggestion for the 
creating of a students' knitting works. Let the Na- 
tional Federation of Women's Clubs appoint a com- 
mittee to investigate the knitting works business. 
If this appears to be well suited for a students' 
works, have the committee make a detailed report. 
This report should include every item of expense 



86 MANUFACTUKING WOKKS 

and income in the operation of the business, de- 
tailed drawings of buildings and machinery, and a 
practical and scientific description of the raw ma- 
terial required. The report should give the cost 
of constructing a knitting plant of the desired size ; 
also the cost of the necessary buildings for dormi- 
tory, restaurant, and high school. In making this 
report, the committee might profitably use several 
years of time. It is, of course, not necessary that 
the committee confine itself to knitting works ; these 
are suggested merely as a possibility. 

The general management under which the works 
is to be operated, until experience teaches better 
ways, should also be determined at this time. One of 
the foremost essentials for success in any plan for 
a school of self-supporting students is that the ap- 
plicants for work be given preference, as nearly as 
possible, in the order of their ability and character as 
shown by previous standing in school. Such a pre- 
ference is only fair, and it urges the less capable to 
do their best. We would suggest a board of directors 
consisting of three members chosen by the women's 
clubs. Let there be added to this board twenty stu- 
dent directors chosen by the student body from the 
eleventh and twelfth grades. Each student director 
should have one tenth the voting power of each di- 
rector chosen by the women's clubs. A special state 



HIGH SCHOOLS 87 

law sanctioning such a board of directors might have 
to be enacted. 

Let us assume that the report will show that one 
dollar per five-hour day can be paid to capable work- 
ers. With each additional year of experience the 
young women would improve in industrial worth, 
and this, let us further assume, would, as is probable, 
permit giving a second-year student $1.05; a third- 
year student $1.10 ; thus advancing the daily wages 
five cents for each year of experience that the student 
gains. The daily wages for each of the six years 
respectively would therefore be $1.00, $1.05, $1.10, 
$1.15, $1.20, $1.25,'making an average of $1.12. 
All wages over the one dollar per day could be saved 
by the student until graduation. A student working 
three hundred days per year for six years could in 
this way accumulate $225. In voting for student 
directors, the individual student might be given 
voting power in proportion to the length of time she 
had served, as the length of service would, in a way, 
be a measure of her experience in the business. 

Another important step for the committee to take 
would be to obtain the pledge of a sufficient num- 
ber of the members of the women's clubs to buy their 
knitted goods from the students' works, provided 
that the quality is equal to that of the best factories, 
and that the prices are not more in excess of mar- 



88 MANUFACTUEING WORKS 

ket prices than fair wages might make necessary. 
Investigation may show that students' knitting works 
could produce underwear at less than present ruling 
prices. These and other preliminaries being accom- 
plished, a stock company for the required amount 
might be formed, possibly for two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars, and the by-laws framed to make 
possible the desired mode of management. Should 
the experiment finally prove successful, students' 
works and manufacturing works high schools of 
various kinds could be introduced into every city of 
sufficient size. 

It would be difficult to estimate the great benefit 
to humanity if the number of mothers who are thor- 
ough high-school graduates could be increased but 
two or three fold. This would be especially true if 
all future high schools for girls would give courses 
in domestic science, nursing, and motherhood. The 
increase in the number of graduates due to the sys- 
tem for self-support would consist of just those whom 
nature would choose as the most desirable mothers. 



SUGGESTIONS RELATIVE TO A 

PUBLIC WORKS SCHOLARSHIP 

FUND 

A Public Works Scholarship Fund as suggested 
in this article would be intended for the aid of self- 
supporting students of secondary or higher schools, 
and would be limited to students who earn their 
education by doing work for city, state, or federal 
government. The principal purpose of the fund 
would be to make good any shortage in wages below 
a fixed minimum. 

Public works scholarship funds, especially for 
secondary schools, might be deposited with some 
state university that would accept the treasuryship. 
Upon presentation of satisfactory vouchers as to 
past expenditures, the funds might be made payable 
in installments, as needed, to the schools for which 
they were intended. The collection and distribu- 
tion of a large fund of this nature would require 
considerable responsibility and work, so the care of 
the fund would probably be entrusted to a com- 
mittee. The committee might engage self-support- 
ing students of the university as clerks to do all of 



90 SCHOLARSHIP FUND 

the detail work involved; and as the care of the 
fund would be work of a public nature, the stu- 
dents doing this detail work would be entitled to 
the benefits of the fund. In order to give the hand- 
ling of the fund the greatest publicity, a section 
of the bookkeeping classes might be made to re- 
view the account books of the fund as part of their 
regular class work. The schools that are benefici- 
aries of the fund might handle their portion of it 
in the same manner. 

Let the objects in placing these students in pub- 
lic work be as follows : First, to give the public 
the benefit of a high class of service in the posi- 
tions allotted to the students ; second, to supply 
the students with the means for self-support while 
obtaining a school education ; third, to fit the stu- 
dents for service in public as well as in private 
activity ; fourth, as far as possible to give the stu- 
dents practical experience that wiU best supplement 
the school education in the special fields chosen by 
them as their life work ; fifth, to bring the schools 
into intimate working touch with the details of 
current public activities. 

The obtaining of work for the students might be 
done by an employment committee. In relation to 
his employment, the student accepting the benefits 
of this fund should, as far as possible, be under 



SCHOLARSHIP FUND 91 

the control of tMs committee. The committee, sub- 
ject to the control of the board of trustees of the 
school, might have arbitrary power in choosing and 
removing any student as a beneficiary of the fund, 
and it should aim to offer for public work the best 
available material. 

In accepting employment from the public for 
the student workers, the employment committee 
should, as far as practicable, aim to confine the 
students to such positions as would require contin- 
uous, energetic work. One of the main objects 
should be to develop in the student both energy 
and efficiency ; a further object should be to coun- 
teract any possible tendency of heads of public 
departments to engage student workers as mere 
hangers-on to do work only during occasional busy 
periods. Such a practice would retard the proper 
development of even the best disposed students. A 
tendency to employ superfluous help might develop, 
because, in some cases, all or part of the students' 
wages would at first be paid out of the fund. 

Any student who might take advantage of this 
fund, and who, owing to his inexperience with the 
work, does not at first receive as wages from the 
department as large a sum as twenty-five cents 
per hour, would be entitled to receive from the 
fund such additional amount as would, when added 



92 SCHOLAESHIP FUND 

to said wages, equal twenty-five cents for each hour 
of employment. In case a student should be tem- 
porarily incapacitated for work, the employment 
committee might be given the right to make good, 
out of the fund, any loss in the student's wages aris- 
ing from such disability. Every student who avails 
himself of this fund should be impressed with the 
special necessity of doing his best at the public 
work, so that he will be likely to receive wages ade- 
quate for his needs, and thus avoid the necessity 
of drawing upon the fund. 

Several varieties of public works scholarship 
funds could be established as their need arises. An 
exact and full description of the purposes and mode 
of management of every fund affecting a certain 
school might be recorded at this school, and a copy 
of each description might be recorded in the re- 
corder's books of the county in which the school is 
located. The purpose of this public record would be 
to simplify the work of investigation by attorneys 
in preparing wills for those of their clients who 
might wish to contribute to the fund. The fund 
committee of the university might formulate clauses 
and codicils for wills for the purpose of making it 
convenient for any one to bequeath part of his es- 
tate to the fund. This committee might advertise 
the nature of the fund and show its inherent 



SCHOLARSHIP FUND 93 

public benefits. The same fund committee might 
also organize endowment funds for public works 
high schools, and, whenever the fund was large 
enough to start such a school, place the money in 
proper hands for the purpose. 

There can be little doubt that a large number of 
people would have a strong sympathy for schools 
which would take a special interest in self-supporting 
young people. As a result of this sympathy, it would 
be less difficult to induce people to bequeath of 
their means for scholarship funds and for school 
endowments. Because of the self-support of the 
students and because of the tuition required, both 
the endowment and the scholarship funds could be 
much smaller than similar funds under the present 
school system. Many people, however, would at 
present hesitate to will money to a fund for a high 
school: first, because the management is likely to 
change frequently ; second, because high schools are 
not equipped to handle such funds ; third, because 
a high-school fund is likely to be relatively small 
and a small fund might not be given the same care 
as a large one. If these objections to high-school 
funds were all met, only a moderate amount of so- 
licitation in behalf of the funds should be required 
to bring good results. The plan described in the 
foregoing for the care of the scholarship fund, — 



94 SCHOLARSHIP FUND 

a plan in wMch the students themselves are a fac- 
tor, — would meet every objection thus far raised. 
The following clause for wills might be useful as 
a suggestion to the fund committee: — 

I hereby give, devise, and bequeath to the Uni- 
versity of the sum of Dollars, in 

trust for the — School of the City of — , 

State of , to be used, administered, and dis- 
tributed for the purpose and in the manner set forth 
and described in a certain instrument entitled " Pub- 
lic Works Scholarship Fund " dated and 

recorded in Book -— . page of the Mis- 
cellaneous Eecords of the county of , State 

of . 



THE HEAKT-MIND AND THE 
SCHOOL 

For the purposes of the present discussion, it mat- 
ters not at all whether the arbitrary and simple 
division of the mind as herein made is scientific. 
Fortunately, yet strangely, it is not essential that 
we know whether what we shall term the heart- 
mind is different from that which we shall term the 
primary-mind merely in degree or in kind. How- 
ever, it is essential that we satisfy ourselves as to a 
vital interdependence and a mutual helpfulness be- 
tween these two divisions of the mind. 

It is sometimes said that secondary-school and 
college education develops the mind without de- 
veloping the heart. We hear that such an education 
often leaves us cold, hard, and calculating. We are 
told, and truly told, that without education of the 
heart no one can become wise, strong, and happy. 
The word " heart," as thus used, in reality means 
but a certain part of the mind, and we herein refer 
to this part as the heart-mind. This mind, we will 
say, is the division which is concerned with know- 
ledge and beliefs regarding human nature and God ; 



96 THE HEAKT-MIND 

while the primary-mind is concerned with all other 
knowledge. Since heart-mind and human nature 
are practically the same, it follows that each indi- 
vidual heart-mind is concerned with knowledge re- 
garding itself, its counterpart in fellow men, and 
with knowledge of God. That knowledge which 
clears the understanding that man has of man, or, 
we may perhaps say, all knowledge so far as it is 
used to clear this understanding, is knowledge that 
belongs to the heart-mind. Knowledge of the spin- 
ning of cobwebs, of the building of suspension 
bridges, of the science of language, of chemistry, 
and other laws of nature, are examples of know- 
ledge belonging principally to the primary-mind. 
Some branches of knowledge may belong to both 
divisions of the mind at the same time. 

It seems to be true that the primary-mind is 
divided in one of several suppositional ways into 
separate and distinct subdivisions for each line of 
thought activity. It seems also to be true that 
the normal activity of any one subdivision of the 
primary-mind will aid in the development of all 
the others. Whether or not the primary-mind is 
thus subdivided in both a physical and a mental 
sense, or only in a mental sense; whether the sub- 
divisions are sharply defined, or not separately dis- 
tinguishable, is not essential here. As an extreme 



THE HEART-MIND 97 

case, for instance, it is believed that a merely nor- 
mal activity and development of the subdivision for 
mathematics or mechanics in any mind will further, 
perhaps only to a slight degree, the development of 
the subdivision for music or painting in that mind. 
A normal rate of development of one or more sub- 
divisions of the primary-mind may, by reason of 
sympathetic action, cause improvement in the health 
and strength of all other subdivisions of that di- 
vision of the mind. Perhaps, too, the development of 
one subdivision is furthered by the normal develop- 
ment of any other, merely by reason of the inter- 
dependence of all branches of knowledge. Here 
we should remember that what is normal develop- 
ment for one mind may be extremely abnormal 
for another. For instance, we are told that some 
are born with a more vigorous rudiment of the 
mathematical subdivision of the primary-mind than 
are others. Those so situated during childhood as 
to develop this subdivision more fully than the 
others are developed may almost be put in the same 
class as those favored at birth with a good mind- 
rudiment for mathematics. Some children have 
several subdivisions of the primary-mind above the 
average in strength ; other children are born with 
all subdivisions above the average. We all know 
that by the time manhood is reached the child born 



98 THE HEART-MIND 

with a marked inclination toward mathematics may, 
without other schooling than that obtained in ordin- 
ary daily occupation, become as proficient in mathe- 
matics as another born with a moderate inclination 
towards mathematics is likely to become under effi- 
cient instruction. It is needless to say that a good 
school could further improve the mathematical part 
of a mind that naturally understands mathematics. 
As it would be with this part, so it would be with 
all other subdivisions of the primary-mind. 

We have made these observations about the pri- 
mary-mind because there is good reason to believe 
that the heart-mind is similarly subdivided into sep- 
arate and distinct, yet related and interdependent 
subdivisions for the different branches of knowledge 
that are its province. The primary-mind and the 
heart-mind seem not only similar in construction 
and in method of operation, but humanity often 
unconsciously acknowledges a close relationship 
between them. The man who has a well-developed 
primary-mind is, as a rule, more readily trusted by 
humanity than one whose primary-mind is poorly 
developed, and whose store of primary-mind know- 
ledge is proportionately low. This more ready trust 
is accorded the man with the well-informed primary- 
mind because it has been found that improvement 
in the heart-mind quite generally accompanies im- 



THE HEAKT-MIND 99 

provcment in the primary-mind. For reasons that 
can readily be imagined, the primary-mind some- 
times advances faster than the heart-mind, and 
develops relatively far beyond it. Persons with 
such uneven mental development are frequently the 
recipients of misplaced confidence given by those 
who judge the individual too much by the quality 
of the primary-mind alone. He whose primary- 
mind is thus relatively in advance of his heart-mind 
is, therefore, in a position to take advantage of this 
misplaced confidence. This advantage he sometimes 
takes because, having a relatively weak heart- 
mind, he cannot always withstand the temptation 
to abuse the undeserved trust placed in him. He 
would not be granted this degree of confidence if 
his primary-mind were, as is usually the case, 
more in keeping with his less developed heart-mind. 
It here becomes evident how, in certain cases, a man 
may improve his heart-mind to some degree, yet, 
on account of the proportional over-improvement 
in the primary-mind, he may in reality become a 
more harmful man than before this additional de- 
velopment of his heart-mind. 

All this is no argument against educating the 
primary-mind, because the ultimate good arising 
from such education makes any temporary harm 
from disproportional development appear insignifir 



100 THE HEAKT-MIND 

cant. Since the human race must improve or re- 
trograde, it is an unimportant matter if a few, on 
account of temporarily uneven mental development, 
become more harmful during their own process of 
improvement. This uneven development may be 
looked for in the student who has a naturally weak 
heart-mind, and who spends most of his time acquir- 
ing technical, scientific, or other knowledge belong- 
ing to the primary-mind. This student ignores that 
training of the heart-mind which is derived from 
good literature, from the heart-mind sciences, such 
as ethics, philosophy, sociology, political economy, 
and from the direct study of human nature through 
social life. A similar thing is true of any man with 
a weak heart-mind, whether he be laborer, me- 
chanic, or business man, if he confines himself too 
closely to an occupation that calls the heart-mind 
but little into action. However, the student can- 
not, while in school, acquire a good store of pri- 
mary-mind knowledge without some social broad- 
ening, or broadening of the heart-mind ; ^ and 

^ The social broadening- here referred to is aided but little by 
the secret societies of the students, if these societies are conducted 
as reported. They may be increasing in number, but they are not 
products of secondary and higher education : they are an out- 
growth of the wrong home training of many of the students. 
Only injurious training can be given in homes where the love 
of money, display, luxury, and ease is encouraged. The young 



THE HEAET-MIND 101 

besides a well-trained primary-mind is likely to 
prepare Mm to acquire more readily that know- 
ledge which develops the heart-mind. He who has 
a weak or untrained heart-mind especially needs 
ethical study to strengthen this mind. This is true 
because the society of his own kind, valuable as it 
is, often gives the heart-mind of the morally ambi- 
tious man a dearth of higher ethical problems. He 
is most fortunate who has a heart-mind that desires 
its own advancement, and who has a primary-mind 
well enough trained to make ethical study easy. 

To grant trust is to acknowledge in the recipient 
of that trust a corresponding development of heart- 
mind. As said before, under the belief that a cer- 
tain degree of heart-mind accompanies a given de- 
gree of primary-mind, humanity, taken as a whole, 
grants to the individual man a greater or lesser 

men from these homes form a certain part of the university stu- 
dent body, and these men find a combination of true social life 
and school work quite foreign to their tastes. In many instances 
they make of the secret society an institution that, in exagger- 
ated and unrestrained form, satisfies the tastes to which they 
have been bred. Here, of course, we have reference to societies 
of the nature of those that have been so severely criticised in re- 
cent years, and the number of these societies is not small. In the 
end the school will prevail, and undoubtedly all undesirable secret 
societies will become extinct. The social development we have in 
mind as due to school life is that which comes from the every- 
day open school work. 



102 THE HEAET-MIND 

measure of trust for eacli measure of development 
of the primary-mind that he may have attained. 
This fact alone should be accepted as adequate evi- 
dence, even though this evidence is circumstantial, 
that there is a strong relationship between the 
heart-mind and the primary-mind. It can safely be 
so accepted until the science of the future settles 
the question. 

When, for instance, we study criminology, suf- 
frage, public education, religion, the humanitarian 
side of taxation or of money, we not only exercise 
and develop the heart-mind, but we study it as 
well. The heart-mind cannot thus be occupied with- 
out making constant use of knowledge stored in the 
primary-mind, nor without taking advantage of the 
general mind power that was in part developed 
through the act of accumulating knowledge in the 
primary-mind. An exhaustive study of the heart- 
mind would probably involve all knowledge. 

Knowledge of the heart-minds of one's fellows, 
whether intuitive or acquired by experience and 
study, or both, is the principal aid to the develop- 
ment of one's own heart-mind, and this development 
fully governs a man's treatment of his fellow man. 
Development of the heart-mind means development 
of goodness degree for degree, and this goodness in 
its last degree signifies the possession of such 



THE HEART-MIND 103 

knowledge and wisdom as results, above all other 
considerations, in heartfelt fair play. Still, not all 
who have considerable knowledge and understand- 
ing of the heart-minds of others are good. Some 
make it a business to discover the weak points in 
the heart-minds of their fellows in order to mislead 
and take dishonest advantage of them. Those who 
deliberately use their knowledge and understand- 
ing of the heart-minds of others for purposes of 
fraud, do this only because their own heart-minds 
are deficient or altogether wanting in that particu- 
lar section which correctly appreciates as a source of 
happiness the value of deserving the trust of one's 
fellows. The man with a very unevenly developed 
heart-mind is sometimes given credit for having all 
its subdivisions developed as well as those that are 
farthest advanced. In these cases, as in those where 
the primary-mind is developed relatively far in 
advance of the heart-mind, the dishonesty often 
takes the form of abusing the unearned trust that 
has been granted. Trust is likely to be erroneously 
granted or withheld as long as some will judge the 
entire heart-mind of others by certain sections 
thereof. 

To all appearances, some are born with better 
rudiments of the various sections of the heart-mind 
than are others. In the infant the rudiments of 



104 THE HEART-MIND 

this mind are ignorantly selfish in the extreme, and 
if the infant has inherited little vigor of heart-mind 
or at least of its more vital parts, he must develop 
under a serious handicap ; and if he grows to man- 
hood under circumstances that do not stimulate 
the heart-mind to higher action, he will be certain 
to develop into a bad man. Under opposite condi- 
tions, this ignorant selfishness will gradually change 
to enlightened, refined, or altruistic selfishness in 
which a man seeks his own good in the good of all. 
The man who has a naturally weak heart-mind can 
be much benefited by a good training of the pti- 
mary-mind, provided that in the daily course of life 
his heart-mind is confronted by some stimulating 
problems, as should be the case with every heart- 
mind. The training of his primary-mind is the prin- 
cipal thing that such a man can depend upon to 
aid his heart-mind in reaching a sound basis, — a 
basis where the gradual self-uplifting of the heart- 
mind will be an inevitable consequence. 

Many people are born with the rudiments of an 
unusually strong heart-mind. They sometimes de- 
velop strength and activity in all sections of this 
part of the mind without first accumulating any 
considerable amount of knowledge belonging to the 
primary-mind. Some of these people have a very 
poorly trained primary-mind, although most of 



THE HEART-MIND 105 

them, if not all, have a primary-mind capable of 
good training. They seem able, without any no- 
ticeable effort, to recognize, to carry in thought, 
and to analyze fairly complex phenomena pertain- 
ing to the heart-mind of their fellows. They do this, 
as just said, without possessing a good store of 
knowledge in the primary-mind, and without even 
realizing that their minds are making the effort 
to study the minds of others. Such persons are 
sometimes called natural readers of human nature, 
but we might just as truly call them natural read- 
ers of the heart-mind. If in a man's own heart- 
mind that division which appreciates the value of 
the trust of his fellows is well developed, he can- 
not observe and understand the heart-minds of 
others, whether they are good or bad, without 
making his own heart-mind better. These people 
sometimes develop a heart-mind relatively far in 
advance of their primary-minds. This accounts for 
the fact that some who have but slightly enlight- 
ened primary-minds are good. We have previously 
accounted for the fact that some with well-enlight- 
ened primary-minds are bad. We have also accounted 
for the fact that some wha have only fractionally 
developed heart-minds are bad. 

All our best novels, histories, and religious books 
deal instructively with human nature and use it as 



106 THE HEART-MIND 

the foundation theme. Through these books we 
come in contact with the best minds, and, directly 
or indirectly, through them, we obtain most of our 
development of the heart-mind. Imagine how much 
more slowly we should all develop if we were denied 
the training of the primary-mind, a training so es- 
sential for the clear understanding of such enlight- 
ened discourse and such books as best train our 
heart-minds. Schools, then, develop the heart-mind 
indirectly through the training they give the pri- 
mary-mind, through the social intercourse that 
accompanies school work, and through the direct 
teaching of such heart-mind studies as are taken 
by the students. 



QUESTIONS FOR THE UNIVERSITIES 

Only a moderate percentage of young people enter 
high school. A large majority of those that enter 
do not finish the course. Many of those that finish 
have not been thorough in their work, and of the 
limited number that enter the university, many do 
not have the capacity to continue. Do all universi- 
ties hold themselves responsible for the existence of 
poorly trained and untrained young people? Are 
not those young people who are lacking in educa- 
tion, whether they are the aimless sons of the rich, 
the misguided sons of the well-to-do, or the self- 
supporting young men, largely results of wrong 
industrial and educational conditions ? Do the uni- 
versities take sufficient interest in the discovery of 
ways to improve these conditions for young people ? 
Do they ask themselves questions of the following 
nature? — 

Is the waste of school time that results in the 
high-school failure a result of a popular misconcep- 
tion of what constitutes social happiness? If so, what 
is this misconception, and how can it be corrected? 



108 QUESTIONS 

How can virtually all boys and girls be led to 
take a thorough high-school course ? 

Would it be wise for the public to provide em- 
ployment for self-supporting students who will do 
work satisfactorily, provided that the employment 
is kept under the inspection of the schools and the 
public ? Would such employment gradually attract 
large numbers of self-supporting students ? Would 
these students be above the average in ability? 
Would they raise the standard of the schools ? 

What would be the best plan that the public 
might adopt to provide steady employment for stu- 
dent laborers ? 

What would be the best plan to induce private 
employers to furnish steady and sufficiently remun- 
erative work to self-supporting students ? 

Is it possible, as a general rule, for a student to 
earn enough for complete self-support after reserv- 
ing a considerable part of his time for school pur- 
poses ? 

Could the public, without loss, engage in certain 
industries in order to give employment to students ? 
Could it permit the older students to do most of 
the managerial work, and thus save for the students 
the employer's profit ? 

What industries could be gradually taken over 
by the public for the benefit of the students ? 



QUESTIONS 109 

Could private employers be induced to instruct 
students in the complete details of their respective 
businesses in order that the greatest educational 
values would be realized from the employment? 

Would employment with private employers, val- 
uable though it is, be as instructive and as valuable 
to the students as employment in public industries 
under school supervision ? 

If the schools were actually guiding some im- 
portant industries would they not be more highly 
regarded by young people ? Would not such activ- 
ity broaden the schools ? Would it not also broaden 
the lives of the instructors? 

If industrial conditions are at their best, is it 
not wise for students and others to be self-support- 
ing after the age of sixteen ? 

Can any school call itself a seat of learning until 
it has brought about a mental condition in the 
entire student body that grants the highest respect 
for any kind of labor done by a self-supporting 
student, and that regards self-support as one of the 
essentials of manhood ? 

What can be done to induce rich parents to turn 
their children over to schools where self-support 
would be required, and where ways of self-support 
would be provided ? 

Would the average child in the elementary 



110 QUESTIONS 

grades be impelled to better effort by a reasonable 
prospect for self-support at instructive work during 
the period of secondary and higher education ? 

Would not the elementary schools prepare the 
children for the later labors in the public-school 
industries, and would not young people who had 
been so prepared make the operation of these in- 
dustries highly successful ? 

Would the plan for public employment during 
school age remove necessary competition from the 
lives of our youth, or would competition still re- 
main and be of a different and better form ? 

Unless means for self-support are provided, can 
the majority of our young people ever attain a 
secondary-school education, and will the standard 
of student earnestness ever be at its best ? 

Is it better for the young man to give his time 
exclusively to school work until the day for enter- 
ing the world's work, or is it better for him to pass 
a few years in a transition period ? Can secondary 
and higher education be of the highest efficiency 
unless it is contemporary with occupation in the 
world's work? 

Would a general union of secondary and higher 
schools with public industrial activity and other 
public activities, purify politics by reason of the 
higher standard of character engaged and the 



QUESTIONS 111 

greater publicity effected, or would politics corrupt 
the schools ? 

To what extent do our industrial and political 
conditions retard the general distribution of sec- 
ondary and higher knowledge? Have any other 
institutions better opportunities to improve these 
conditions than have our great universities? If 
so, are any other institutions as responsible for the 
persistence of these conditions? The church is 
asked to improve them, and rightly so, but have 
not the universities a greater responsibility in this 
field? 

Can these questions be settled without the mak- 
ing, under varied conditions, of a limited number 
of thorough experiments? 

Until the universities have done all that can be 
done to increase high-school attendance and to 
make the students more earnest, they should hold 
themselves largely responsible for poorly educated 
young people. 



REDEEM NATIONAL RESOURCES 
AND HELP THE SCHOOLS^ 

When land in great areas still belonged to the pub- 
lic, the government wisely set aside large tracts as 
school lands. These school lands were gradually- 
disposed of in order to obtain funds for building 
and operating public schools. It now becomes ap- 
parent that it would have been still wiser had the 
lawmakers of those early times also reserved other 
public resources. 

Without retarding the nation's material pro- 
gress, the government might have reserved for pub- 
lic-school purposes many of the timber, mineral, and 
oil rights, also much of the water supply and water 
power. These several resources could, in the begin- 
ning, have been leased under restrictions fair both 
to the lessees and to the public, and the rent 
could have gone, at least in part, to the support of 
the schools. At the expiration of the leases, the 
schools, through departments of forestry, mining, 
oil development, water supply, and water power, 

^ The larg-er part of this article was published under another 
title in the Pacific Outlook of November 7, 1908. 



HELP THE SCHOOLS 113 

might themselves have operated sawmills, mines, oil 
weUs, water works, and power plants. Good wages 
and good working conditions could have been given 
the students in these public activities, and there 
would have been no lack of available students. The 
profit to the public would have been great in dollars, 
and beyond measure in citizenship. 

In consequence of the past oversight in not re- 
serving more of our national resources, the country 
now supports thousands of palatial imitations of 
homes in which families maintain a retinue of ser- 
vants who, being treated as inferior persons, often 
become inferior. If the public does not redeem 
some of its lost resources, and if it does not awaken 
and come to the support of its better political 
leaders in conserving the resources stiU remaining, 
the nation wiU in time be burdened with a tenfold 
increase in such palatial homes and their often- 
times undesirable occupants, instead, as would be 
easily possible, of being blessed with more numer- 
ous and better schools occupied by public-spirited 
and adequately remunerated teachers and by hope- 
ful young people developing into upright citizens. 

The following discussion shows how one public 
resource, although originally regulated by law, was 
made private property by the courts. The story, 
although wholly imaginary, shows how ridiculous 



114 REDEEM NATIONAL EESOURCES 

such a situation appears, and how easily the re- 
source might have been rescued. 

We will suppose that somewhat more than ten 
years ago one thousand American negro graduates 
of Hampton Institute, Tuskegee, and many North- 
ern high schools, in a courageous effort to aid in 
the solution of the race problem, undertook to start 
an all-negro nation of high-school graduates ^ in a 
suitable, uninhabited district in Africa. They named 
their nation New Liberia, and their first town New 
Hampton. Out of friendship for the United States, 
and out of a sense of inter-racial fellowship, all civ- 
ilized countries agreed to protect these ambitious, 
nation-making pioneers against white and yellow 
invasion for one hundred years. 

In its natural state, the district set aside for this 
new nation was a semi-arid country, as was South- 
ern California twenty-five years ago. Before leaving 
for Africa the colony sent three of its members to 
California to study the water development, and 
the method of distribution as there practiced. The 
information gained by these three men was incor- 
porated as a part of the general plan for the new 

^ We have selected secondary-scliool graduates as the inhabit- 
ants of our imaginary country because we could hardly expect 
quick and intelligent public actiou from those of less training. 



HELP THE SCHOOLS 115 

national life. In this plan it was provided that the 
three men, for private gain, should form and operate 
a stock company to supply the inhabitants of the 
new nation with water. The law framed to cover 
this phase of the nation's economy provided that the 
water rates should be so regulated that the business 
of the water company might yield the stockholders 
an annual net profit of twelve per cent on the value 
of the water plant. In addition to the regular cost 
of operation and maintenance, the expenses included 
a sinking fund for the purpose of covering expected 
renewals. With the exception of the clause fixing 
the rate of profit at twelve per cent, the water laws 
of California were adopted by the new nation for 
the regulation and protection of the business of the 
three incorporators of the water company. 

New Liberia grew rapidly. In ten years five thou- 
sand additional negro graduates had made their 
homes in the new land ; and for every such gradu- 
ate who entered the country, the laws of the nation 
permitted two less educated adult negroes to come 
to New Liberia. In ten years, therefore, eighteen 
thousand adults had come to the new country. If 
we add to this number all of the native-born, we 
find a population of about fifty thousand in New 
Liberia at the present time. Compulsory secondary 
education was adopted for all native-born citizens, 



116 REDEEM NATIONAL RESOURCES 

and for each native graduate, two less educated 
emigrants from the United States will be admitted. 
Contrary to expectation, this movement of graduates 
toward Africa has not decreased the intellectual aver- 
age of the negroes that remain ; it has rather stimu- 
lated them to a more determined educational effort. 

We wiU suppose that the richest land in New 
Liberia, and that nearest the water supply, is by 
this time thickly settled. All the water has been 
developed by the three " water-men," as they are 
called, and all opportunity for competition has been 
removed. The next available source of supply is 
sixty miles distant, and the colony is as yet too 
poor to utilize this water. The three water-men 
originally brought ten thousand dollars to the new 
country, and with this capital they developed the 
first supply of water. The wages that each took 
for his work, together with the four hundred dollars 
that each received as his share of the profits, gave 
each as good a living as that of the more fortunate 
of his neighbors. But, like a large class of white 
men and a comparatively small class of black men, 
the more they have, the more they want. 

The colony has now ^own to large proportions 
and its numbers are increasing rapidly, as many 
new settlers are coming from the different states. 
Under these conditions each individual settler is no 



HELP THE SCHOOLS 117 

longer a personal acquaintance of all the others, 
and it requires ever less acuteness on the part of 
the schemer to injure the public, and to " befuddle " 
the issue, when those who are accurately informed 
of the deception endeavor to expose and correct 
wrong-doing. However, when a black man of New 
Liberia tries some nefarious scheme, he is soon 
checked by his more enlightened fellow citizens. 

Not long ago our three water-men received a 
visit from a negro lawyer of Southern California, 
and this friend told them of recent court decisions 
in suits between California cities and private water 
companies. In these decisions he said that flowing 
water, and water that is easily pumped, is inven- 
toried at one thousand dollars or more per miner's 
inch. Our three incorporators at once saw great 
possibilities of wealth, luxury, display, and power, as 
their water right consisted of one thousand miner's 
inches of such water. In California this amount of 
water would be inventoried at one million dollars at 
least. Up to this time it had not occurred to these 
men to demand a greater annual profit than twelve 
hundred doUars, as this was twelve per cent on that 
part of the plant built with their own money. Be- 
fore the lawyer ended the first day of his visit, he 
and his three friends had estimated a large pro- 
spective profit in the following manner : — 



118 REDEEM NATIONAL RESOURCES 

Part of plant built with the original funds, $10,000.00 

Part of plant built with surplus from water rates, 300,000.00 

1000 miner's inches of flowing water at $1000 per inch, 1,000,000.00 

$1,310,000.00 

Twelve per cent allowed for profit based on sucli 
an inventory amounts to 1157,200. 

The lawyer said that inventory prices of flowing 
water in California have a tendency to rise, and he 
predicted that two thousand dollars an inch would 
prevail in ten years. Should this prediction come 
true, these New Liberia water-men believed that 
in ten years they would be entitled to an annual 
profit of over a quarter of a million dollars. Even 
$157,200 of annual income would mean a colossal 
fortune for three men in a new country of this 
character; yet it meant, in money, but seventy- 
three cents per month for each of the eighteen thou- 
sand adults of New Liberia. 

Of course the lawyer told his friends that it 
would be a difficult matter so to engineer this 
change in rates that the leaders of the common 
council, the newspapers, the courts, and even the 
people, would see things right, and appreciate the 
injustice that his friends had inflicted on them- 
selves in the past. The lawyer told the three water- 
men that they were supposed to have done business 
under law copied from the original California law, 



HELP THE SCHOOLS 119 

and this being the case, they could assume the 
privilege of acting under that law as modified by 
subsequent California court decisions. In any 
event, the lawyer said that it would do no harm 
to try the new water rates on the people, and ex- 
pressed his willingness to undertake the securing of 
legal sanction for the increased rates as just esti- 
mated, if the water-men would agree to allow him 
fifteen thousand dollars a year for his work as long 
as the increased rate could be made to hold. The 
lawyer said that he expected to use fifty thousand 
dollars, conditional on success. This fifty thousand 
dollars he thought would be ample to enlighten 
and satisfy all antagonism. He promised to arrange 
that none of these obligations should become due 
before the profit out of the new rates which the 
people would be made to pay was ample for set- 
tlement in full. His greatest trouble, he believed, 
would be to obtain advertising space on credit from 
even the friendly newspapers. He emphasized the 
fact that he, too, would wait for his annual reward of 
fifteen thousand dollars until the rates for January 
were collected. The lawyer said that it certainly 
could be made to look ridiculous that the water-men 
should have a profit of only twelve hundred dollars, 
exclusive of salaries, on a business that distributes 
nearly thirteen million gallons of water a day. 



120 EEDEEM NATIONAL KESOURCES 

" I know you water-men receive a salary that is 
approximately what you would receive if doing any- 
thing else," the lawyer said, " and a salary at which 
the public could hire men who would, with a little 
practice, carry on this business successfully. On 
the other hand, there is George Frost who has a 
profit of one hundred thousand dollars a year from 
his simple invention, and the money volume of his 
business is not half what your total water rates 
would be on the new basis. With arguments of this 
nature I can easily mislead the public, if the ma- 
jority of your people have not yet learned to dis- 
tinguish between a monopolistic public utility busi- 
ness and a private competitive business. I am aware 
that Mr. Frost has a monopoly for seventeen years 
in this patented device, but he cannot prevent 
another from inventing a better one which might 
take aU or part of his business away from him. A 
monopoly in a public necessity, whether created by 
law or by an invincible aggregation of capital, is 
as safe as a real-estate mortgage, and, in compari- 
son with a private competitive business, it deserves 
much less profit. Your people, I believe, do not 
realize this, therefore they may stand the increase 
in rates. If they will stand the proposed increase, 
it will be an easy matter to continue the raising 
of rates in proportion to the further rise in inven- 



HELP THE SCHOOLS 121 

tory values of flowing water in California. When 
your annual profit has increased to about two hun- 
dred and forty thousand dollars, I should advise 
that you capitalize on a six per cent basis, or for 
four million dollars, and sell at par to your fellow 
citizens as much of the capital stock as you can. 
This will make your position more secure." 

All the courts and newspapers in New Liberia, 
had they tried, could not have convinced the fifty 
thousand enlightened negroes that the inhabitants 
of California have any sense of justice, or common 
sense of any kind, when it comes to calculating water 
rates. Neither the courts, the newspapers, nor the 
officials endorsed the proposed increase in rates. 
After their endeavor to increase the water rates, 
the three water-men were called unpatriotic, and it 
will require many years of right effort to reestablish 
them in the confidence of their fellow citizens. 

The proposed plan of the California lawyer and 
the three New Liberian water-men directed the at- 
tention of the people to the possible misinterpreta- 
tion of the California law that they had adopted. 
Awake to the possibilities of the injustice to which 
this law opened the way, they immediately set to 
work to remedy its defects. When they explained 
the method of calculation used to arrive at the pro- 
posed water rate, the four men were so sharply 



122 EEDEEM NATIONAL EESOUKCES 

reprimanded by the public that their attempt ended 
in a timid argument that rates must be raised to 
lessen consumption in order that the inadequate sup- 
ply might hold out until the colony was wealthy 
enough to bring its water from the next source of 
supply. 

Their fellow citizens replied : " Raise the rates as 
high as necessary for this purpose, but turn over to 
the city, annually, all surplus profits over twelve 
per cent on your original investment of ten thou- 
sand dollars. The money you thus turn over we 
will apply to extend the water plant ; and what is 
not needed for this extension will be used to reduce 
the general tax levy. If once they had accumulated 
sufficient money, men as selfish as you are might 
corrupt our press and our officials. An enterprise in 
what is acknowledged as a public utility must hence- 
forth be considered the sacred charge of those into 
whose hands it has fallen. Since you have exposed 
your characters, we shall relieve you of your busi- 
ness as soon as we can make a fair and satisfactory 
law to provide for the compensation to be given. 
But this compensation will include no price for the 
water that was in reality only loaned by the govern- 
ment. Our magnificent school system is the only 
part of the nation's economy that is operated on a 
scale so generous as to make retrenchment pos- 



HELP THE SCHOOLS 123 

sible, and if we were to permit you to take the pro- 
fits that you planned, we should have to curtail the 
school system, and this would be preposterous." 

The three men might have lived entirely on their 
salaries, and have used the annual dividends of 
twelve per cent to acquire additional capital stock 
of the water company. At the end of twenty years of 
such procedure, each would have accumulated about 
thirty-two thousand dollars worth of stock, which 
would yield for each an annual income of about 
thirty-eight hundred dollars. Had these three men 
adopted this plan, the public of New Liberia would 
have remained satisfied, and would not have decided 
to acquire the water business. Twenty years of 
service in the water works would have found these 
men, at about fifty-five years of age, with an annual 
income for each of thirty-eight hundred dollars in 
addition to a fair salary, and with the deepest respect 
and confidence of their fellow citizens. 

We will now turn from the imaginary country of 
New Liberia to our own country, and to California. 
Californians are all interested in learning by what 
legal reasoning and by what principle of justice the 
California courts construe the law so as to permit 
water companies to estimate a percentage of profit 
on a valuation placed on the water they were per- 



124 KEDEEM NATIONAL KESOURCES 

mitted to appropriate. The California law originally 
did not intend to grant a man the right to appro- 
priate a public necessity like water, and then to pro- 
tect him against usurpers in order that he might 
demand a profit on the water right, much less a pro- 
fit per gallon on this right, which increases with the 
demand for water. Without doubt, the purpose of 
this law was to allow him a certain profit on his de- 
velopment work, and this profit was fixed at a given 
percentage of the value of the plant. It seems, how- 
ever, that the law did not define with absolute clear- 
ness what should constitute this value. 

The water law of 1885 contains the following: 
" Said board of supervisors, in fixing such rates, 
shall, as near as may be, so adjust them that the net 
annual receipts and profits thereof to the said per- 
sons, companies, associations, and corporations so 
furnishing such water to such inhabitants, shall be 
not less than six or more than eighteen per centum 
on the said value of the canals, ditches, flumes, 
chutes, and aU other property actually used and use- 
ful to the appropriation and furnishing of such 
water, etc." The law does not say that a profit of 
between six and eighteen per cent shall be allowed 
on any future valuation of the water rights. It is 
true that the law expressly allows the said 
profit on "aU other property actually used and 



HELP THE SCHOOLS 126 

useful to the appropriation and furnishing of such 
water." 

The phrase "all other property actually used 
and useful to the appropriation and furnishing of 
such water" was not intended to cover water 
rights. Should a jobbing house advertise that 
it has on sale water pipe and all other property 
actually used and useful to the appropriation and 
furnishing of water by water companies, no one 
would expect to buy water or water rights from the 
house. Should a dealer advertise that he has on sale 
fish lines and all other materials actually used and 
useful for catching and selling fish, no one would 
expect to buy fish from him. For like reasons no 
one should have assumed that the framers of our 
water law intended that a profit should be figured 
on a valuation of the water right, when they said 
that a profit of six to eighteen per cent may be al- 
lowed on the " value of the canals, ditches, flumes, 
chutes, and all other property actually used and use- 
ful to the appropriation and furnishing of such 
water." The records of lawsuits show that, up to 
1890 or even later, it did not occur to water com- 
panies to ask a percentage of profit on a valuation 
of appropriated water. This fact is strong circum- 
stantial evidence that no such profit was originally 
intended. The fact that the framers of the law spe- 



126 EEDEEM NATIONAL EESOURCES 

cified canals, ditches, flumes, and chutes, but did 
not specify the water right, which is the first essen- 
tial in the business, is adequate evidence in favor 
of our contention. 

Does not that branch of the press that stands for 
right have a duty to perform in every case of such 
positive injustice to the public? This case of injust- 
ice stands out so plainly, and could be so effectually 
and easily corrected without wrong to any one, that 
the duty to work for such correction becomes doubly 
binding. 

If the interests that now control our water sup- 
plies are so strong, and if the rights of these interests 
are so long established that we cannot force any 
radical change, could not a valid law be framed 
and enacted for the appraisal of all privately 
owned water rights ? This law should provide that 
the appraisal be made within a short period after 
the law goes into effect. Whether the price deter- 
mined upon in any case is fixed at the rate of one 
dollar or one thousand dollars per miner's inch at 
the intake, the law should provide that the ap- 
praised value may never be raised in proceedings 
for determining any future water rate ; that it may 
never be raised in order to aid in increasing the 
capital stock of the corporation ; that it may never 
be raised in order to increase the value of the 



HELP THE SCHOOLS 127 

assets of any water company in any condemnation 
suit brought by the public for the purpose of effect- 
ing pubKc ownership. 

The foregoing is said with a full appreciation of 
the fact that lawyers generally would consider law 
based on the above suggestion as impractical, con- 
fiscatory, and unconstitutional. Nevertheless, the 
law that regulates public water rates to the extent 
that they are regulated is of the same nature, and 
it was meant to go just as far as the one suggested. 
Long ago, when the present laws for the regulat- 
ing of water rates were first discussed, many law- 
yers argued that these laws were unconstitutional 
and confiscatory. This argument was made by these 
lawyers, although no principle in law is much more 
strongly established than the one which allows leg- 
islative bodies the right to fix the rates of charges in 
any business that partakes of a public nature. Our 
legislature acted well within its powers when it en- 
acted a law that attempted to regulate our public 
water rates. The law that was enacted is, however, 
only partially operative, because the courts have 
interpreted it so as to allow the rate to be in a 
measure based on a changeable valuation of the 
water right, — a right which, under certain re- 
strictions, was given to the appropriator by the 
public. It is apparent that as long as the valuation 



128 REDEEM NATIONAL RESOURCES 

of the water right per miner's inch can be raised 
from time to time, any law attempting to fix water 
rates on a percentage basis of the combined value 
of the water plants and water rights becomes par- 
tially inoperative. For the purpose of carrying out 
at least in part the evident intent of the statutes 
fixing our water rates, all water rights must soon 
be given a maximum legal valuation, and this valu- 
ation should not be excessive. 

In order to show the power of our legislatures to 
regulate private enterprise when public interest is 
seriously affected, one need only refer to the historic 
suit of Munn versus Illinois,^ tried before the Su- 
preme Court of the United States in 1876. This 
suit was brought to restrain the state of Illinois 
from fixing a maximum rate for the storage of grain 
in privately owned grain elevators in aU cities of over 
one hundred thousand population. Chicago was at 
that time the only large city in the state. Although 
every sentence in the opinion delivered by Chief 
Justice Waite is most interesting, we will quote 
only in part : — 

"Enough has already been said to show that, 
when private property is devoted to a public use, it 
is subject to public regulation. It remains only to 
ascertain whether the warehouses of these plaintiffs 

^ Supreme Court Decisions, book 94, U. S., p. 113. 



HELP THE SCHOOLS 129 

in error, and the business which is carried on there, 
come within the operation of this principle." 

Next to the air we breathe, water is of the most 
vital importance to the public, and any private 
corporation in the business of supplying water to 
the public has its property " devoted to a public 
use." If, therefore, it was constitutional to fix the 
price of storing grain at the rate of two cents per 
bushel, it must be equally constitutional to prevent 
the basing of water rates in part on a valuation of 
a water right that can be increased as the demand 
for water increases, or for any other cause. In 
other words, if it is constitutional for the legisla- 
ture to make a fixed rate for the storing of grain 
in privately owned warehouses, it must be constitu- 
tional to make a fixed value for the water rights 
upon which a water rate is to be based. This looks 
especially reasonable when it is borne in mind that 
the water right was granted by the government to 
the original appropriator free of cost. 

For the sake of information we will again quote 
from the opinion of Chief Justice Waite : — 

" Neither is it a matter of any moment that no 
precedent can be found for a statute precisely like 
this. It is conceded that the business is one of re- 
cent origin, that its growth has been rapid, and 
that it is already of great importance. And it must 



130 REDEEM NATIONAL RESOURCES 

also be conceded that it is a business in wMch the 
whole public has a direct and positive interest. It 
presents, therefore, a case for the application of a 
long-known and well-established principle in social 
science, and this statute simply extends the law so 
as to meet this new development of commercial 
progress. 

" It matters not in this case that these plaintiffs 
in error had built their warehouses and established 
their business before the regulations complained of 
were adopted. What they did was, from the be- 
ginning, subject to the power of the body politic 
to require them to conform to such regulations as 
might be established by the proper authorities for 
the common good. They entered upon their busi- 
ness and provided themselves with the means to 
carry it on subject to this condition. 

" We know that this is a power which may be 
abused ; but that is no argument against its existence. 
For protection against abuses by Legislatures the 
people must resort to the polls, not to the courts." 

A great many subsequent Supreme Court decis- 
ions confirm the principles laid down in the case 
quoted. These citations from the opinion of Chief 
Justice Waite could be made the basis of a law 
which would seem both reasonable and constitu- 
tional, if it provided as follows : — 



HELP THE SCHOOLS 131 

1. "Water rights not yet legally appropriated 
shall be given no money value in future proceedings 
conducted to determine public water rates, nor in 
future calculations conducted to determine the price 
to be paid by the public for acquiring a water plant 
using any such water supply. 

2. Any owner of a water right, if he believes it 
to be of money value at the present time, may 
make affidavit setting forth his claims. These affi- 
davits must set forth all the evidence in support of 
the value claimed. All affidavits must be filed with 
a " Water Court " within one year after the date on 
which the law goes into effect. 

3. For the purpose of establishing an " appraised 
value," the proper public officer shall, without de- 
lay, bring suit against every person filing such affi- 
davit in any Water Court. Each such suit for ''ap- 
praised value " shall be separately conducted on its 
merits. With special restrictions, these price-fixing 
suits shall be tried in a manner similar to that fol- 
lowed in suits for the condemnation of private pro- 
perty for public use. 

4. Any price so fixed by the Water Court for 
such water right shall be forever the maximum fig- 
ure on which a profit may be calculated in deter- 
mining public water rates ; this price also shall be 
forever the maximum that the public shall be re- 



132 EEDEEM NATIONAL RESOURCES 

quired to pay for the water in case of condemnation 
by suit to acquire the water plant using such water. 

5. All water rights at present appropriated, as to 
the value of which no affidavit has been filed within 
the legal limit of one year, shall be considered as 
having no money value in the proceedings de- 
scribed in the first clause hereof. 

6. This "appraised value" of water rights shall 
be subject to reduction for cause, through proceed- 
ings properly brought ; but it shall not be subject 
to such reduction oftener than once in ten years, 
unless it be reduced for reasons of equity in a con- 
demnation suit brought at any time by the public 
for the acquiring of the water plant which is using 
the water. 

7. Any community using water supplied by a 
private water company may, by means of the usual 
proceedings, annually determine the rate to be 
paid for water. This rate shall be calculated to 
yield a profit of not over five per cent on the ap- 
praised value of such part of the water right as is 
actually used, and a net profit of a percentage to 
be determined on the value of the development 
work; and in addition a net profit of a percentage 
to be determined on the original cost of the real 
estate investments necessary for the protection of 
the water right. 



HELP THE SCHOOLS 133 

8. This clause miglit show in detail how the net 
value of the development work shall be ascertained, 
and how to determine which real estate shall be 
considered necessary for the protection of the water 
right. 

9. This clause might give the public the power 
to raise the water rate when, in its opinion, sucli 
action shall be necessary in order to curtail the 
consumption of water. The extra profit due to such 
increase in rates shall be turned over to the public 
treasury for various purposes, first among which 
shall be that of perfecting and enlarging the water 
system whenever necessary. The part of the sys- 
tem built with this extra profit shall belong to the 
public. 

10. Nothing herein contained shall be taken or 
construed as applying to privately owned water 
rights, the water of which is used only on the lands 
of the owners of the water. 

It may be considered too radical a principle of 
law that permits the permanent fixing of a price of 
an asset belonging to a privately owned public busi- 
ness, but in cases where that asset was given to the 
appropriator by the state without special compensa- 
tion, and where the principle is applied to a ne- 
cessity so indispensable as water, this principle of 
law can only be considered a next legal step in eco- 



134 EEDEEM NATIONAL RESOURCES 

nomic progress. It is possible that conditions are 
not yet ripe for the application of this principle to 
aU privately owned businesses of a public nature, 
but the water business is so well understood by the 
public, and the need of pure water is so well known, 
that the public can be better trusted with this 
branch of the public economy than can private 
water companies. 

The above arguments for a law to fix maximum 
prices for water rights for the purposes stated are 
equally applicable to a similar law in regard to 
the numerous water-power rights that are being so 
eagerly grasped by private individuals. The present 
laws relating to these latter rights were perhaps 
reasonable enough when they were made, but under 
present conditions they are a menace to the public 
good. These laws were enacted when the present 
electrical appliances for utilizing this water power 
were as yet in their incipiency, and when, in com- 
parison with present methods, it was a Herculean 
task to bring the water power from the falls in the 
mountains to the city situated many miles distant. 
At that time relatively few of the water-power 
rights were appropriated. As great profit-making 
enterprises, they were less attractive than at pre- 
sent. However, by reason of the unprecedented de- 
velopment along the lines of electrical machinery, 



HELP THE SCHOOLS 135 

the values of these rights, from the standpoint of 
unregulated private ownership, have increased prob- 
ably more than a hundred fold. Private citizens 
whose vocations have taught them to appreciate 
the new and increased value of these water-power 
rights are appropriating them with feverish haste, 
and this appropriation is effected in ways which do 
not always conform to the evident intent of exist- 
ing laws. These citizens well realize that the laws 
relating to water-power rights may soon be made 
more exacting, and their desire is to outstrip the 
lawmakers by hastily appropriating all such rights 
as are still left unclaimed. 

In the course of twenty years the interests own- 
ing the various power rights will inevitably be 
merged with the railway interests. By that time, if 
legislation favors, the California water-power rights 
alone can easily be made to yield an annual profit 
of many millions of dollars. Such large annual 
profits would be a heavy burden on the five millions 
of people who may inhabit the state twenty years 
hence. However, the greatest loss to the public 
will not be the payment of these millions of dollars 
in annual profits ; it will be the official corruption 
due to the misuse of a part of these millions in the 
legislative departments of our government. Con- 
temporary history teaches that the combined finan- 



136 EEDEEM NATIONAL EESOURCES 

cial forces of the water-power and railway inter- 
ests will be controlled largely by men consciously 
or unconsciously lacking in public morals. Public 
morals, generally speaking, will advance greatly 
in twenty years, and corrupters will find operation 
ever more hazardous. Nevertheless, if we carelessly 
and recklessly continue to place great public prop- 
erties in the hands of men who have little inter- 
est in the public welfare, we must expect to see 
the present steady advance in public morals most 
seriously checked by this increased power to cor- 
rupt our civic life. When we offer great public re- 
sources to enterprising individuals without proper 
restrictions to prevent abnormal profit, we attract 
a large percentage of men too grasping to be 
interested in a profit that is merely fair. This 
grasping class of men adopt business methods that 
either force out of the business those who have 
public morals, or force these other men to adopt 
similar methods in order to preserve their interests. 
The public, of course, pays all the loss. 

No good reason appears why aU remaining na- 
tional resources of forests, coal, oil, and metals 
should not immediately be set aside as public prop- 
erty, and leased out for varying terms, or possibly 
operated as suggested in the foregoing by means of 
public works schools. In order to redeem public 



HELP THE SCHOOLS 137 

resources, we are in great need of a law similar to 
the one herein suggested, and we must soon have 
political conditions which will enable the public to 
pass such laws. The public is accustomed to seeing 
the considerable profit made on national resources 
pass to private interests. After the redemption of 
any such resource, no one would suffer if a share 
of the profit saved by reason of public ownership 
were turned over for school purposes, especially if 
the school should cooperate in making successful 
the public management of the resource. 



A STUDY IN KINSHIP : CHURCH 
AND SCHOOL^ 

Let us suppose that thirty years ago a ship was 
wrecked near an unknown island, and that among 
the passengers there were twenty children varying 
from three to nine months of age. The ship struck 
an outlying rock, and the captain saw that the ves- 
sel was so badly damaged that it must be aban- 
doned. A terrific storm drove them far out of any 
established course, and during the storm all the 
life-boats were swept away. A raft was hastily 
constructed, and aU the children were secured to 
this and sent to shore with a sailor and his 
wife. Mother love, facing necessity, induced the 
mothers to part with their children in this way. 
The sea was unusually calm, and no fears arose in 
regard to the safety of the children. The intention 
was to draw back the raft by means of an attached 

^ For a century or more, the main thought expressed in " A 
Study in Kinship " has been generally accepted as true. Never- 
theless, until each individual church takes a keen interest in both 
the elementary and the secondary education of each of its young 
people, there is reason for repeating the thought in one form or 
another. 



CHURCH AND SCHOOL 139 

rope, and, meantime, to construct other rafts. But 
before the first raft landed, the boiler of the ship 
exploded, and the ship, released from the rock, 
quickly sank. All on board were either killed or 
drowned. The one sailor whose life was saved 
wrote these particulars of the shipwreck in a note- 
book which was found thirty years later. 

This old notebook records that the sailor and his 
wife landed safely and found on the island a par- 
ticularly large, intelligent, and docile species of 
monkey not yet known to the outside world. Ac- 
cording to the notes, the sailor's wife won the con- 
fidence of these animals, and soon induced the 
mothers among the monkeys to adopt, nurse, and 
protect the babies. The monkeys were very imi- 
tative, and were quickly taught the essentials neces- 
sary for the weKare of the children. The notebook 
said that the children throve from the start ; it also 
said that the sailor and his wife, as the result of 
an accident, hardly expected to live. This, the 
last entry, was written six months after the ship- 
wreck. As the notebook told no more, the lives of 
the two guardians must have ended as the sailor 
feared. At this time the older children were but 
little over a year old. 

Now let us suppose that thirty years later ex- 
plorers who landed on the island found the twenty 



140 A STUDY IN KINSHIP 

stranded children and their offspring in good health, 
bnt living and acting much like the wild animals 
that shared the island with them. The few words 
that the older children had learned from the sailor 
and his wife had been forgotten. Under such cir- 
cumstances, a simple gibberish similar to that used 
by the monkeys was as near to language as any- 
thing that could be developed in thirty years. By 
means of this gibberish they could express pain, 
fear, indifference, irritability, anger, jealousy, hatred, 
and other like states of mind, as weU as the oppo- 
site states. 

If left to themselves, how many thousand years 
would it take these isolated men and women to 
reach a stage of civilization equal to that of old 
Eome ? And to these thousands of years must be 
added at least two thousand more before they 
could reach our present stage of civilization. 

Our forefathers, at the time of earliest recorded 
history, were subject to a superstitious fear of 
storms and other unusual phenomena. Each of 
these phenomena was probably connected in their 
minds with some imaginary supernatural personal- 
ity, and this fear was the nearest approach to re- 
ligion then extant. The thought-processes of our 
islanders could hardly be called cerebration ; indeed, 
in comparison with their mental activity, the super- 



CHUKCH AND SCHOOL 141 

stitious fear ascribed to our forefathers in the first 
dawn of history was a brilliant mental state. 

If the explorers should bring the twenty islanders 
and their children to New York, the churches and 
philanthropic societies would at once cooperate to 
educate them. As a result of this effort, the chil- 
dren of these islanders would in twenty years be 
as enlightened as is the average university grad- 
uate. Thus we see that, by taking advantage of 
intercourse with educated people and of the pre- 
sent school organization with its accumulation of 
knowledge and wisdom, we accomplish, by way of 
enlightenment, as much in twenty years as would 
require thousands of years on the isolated island. 

Let us again suppose that we were entrusted 
with the finding of homes for twenty orphaned 
children from three to nine months old, and that 
these children were in every way equal to the in- 
fants whom we described as shipwrecked. Suppose 
that these children were given to twenty of the 
most illiterate and poorest homes of the slum dis- 
tricts of some great city, — districts where primary 
education was very laxly enforced, and where the 
children, when only nine or ten years of age, were 
set at work that stunts their growth. Allow the 
children to develop under these conditions, without 
enlightened aid, until they are twenty-five years of 



142 A STUDY IN KINSHIP 

age, and what would be the result ? Some would 
not even learn to read; only a few would learn 
more than the rudiments of reading. Their spoken 
language could be no other than that used by ignor- 
ant and oftentimes vicious people, — vicious, how- 
ever, only by force of circumstances. The vocabu- 
lary used by any person developed under such 
conditions would of necessity be extremely limited. 
In some cases so much slum vernacular would enter 
his speech as to make it difficult for the average 
person to grasp his meaning. 

We learn and reason largely by means of lan- 
guage. We have seen that without language and 
without association with enlightened minds, we can 
acquire but little knowledge beyond that which is 
common to lower animals. With a very limited 
vocabulary, and with association confined to those 
who are no better enlightened, there can be little 
opportunity of rising above the semi-barbarian in 
intelligence. Some barbarians, without doubt, have 
better opportunities to develop moral and ethical 
intelligence than have many of our fellow-citizens 
who live in the close confines of some of the least 
favorable sections of large cities. For such men to 
have any clearly-defined religious thought is impos- 
sible ; they have neither the opportunity nor the 
ability to learn from books or from enlightened 



CHURCH AND SCHOOL 143 

discourse. Where primary-scliool laws are not en- 
forced, hardly one of the twenty children just men- 
tioned, by the time of reaching maturity, would 
have extricated himself from his undesirable en- 
vironment and become a good and valuable citizen. 
If one did so extricate himself, this release might 
be due to his having inherited better personal ap- 
pearance, better health, or somewhat stronger men- 
tal power. Some accidental incident may have led 
him into surroundings which afforded better oppor- 
tunities, and these better opportunities may have 
presented themselves in such form and in such 
order that he could readily take advantage of 
them. 

Is it not directly in line with the purpose of the 
churches to see that school laws are adequate, and 
to see that they are enforced until they extend to 
the last child of school age that is out of school ? 
Some children are too poor to go to school. Is it 
not the part of wisdom of the churches to provide 
the means for elementary school attendance of aU 
children not otherwise provided for ? Will not this 
be the duty of the churches until all states have 
laws to provide the means for the school attendance 
of the comparatively few children whose parents 
cannot so provide? It should not, however, be 
simply a matter of sending these children to school 



144 A STUDY IN KINSHIP 

for a few montlis each year ; the same supervising 
care should see that they, as well as aU other chil- 
dren, attend fuU time. The church cannot do every- 
thing, but if it has any duty to itself and to the 
public beyond that of preaching to people as it finds 
them, it is to look carefully after the elementary 
school training of children. This training wiU al- 
ways be the best part of the foundation on which 
church work is built. 

Some men believe that assistance of every kind 
pauperizes character. These men say, " The one of 
the twenty slum inhabitants who advanced beyond 
the nineteen was the only one fit to advance." They 
also say, " Nature's law, the survival of the fittest, 
should have unobstructed sway ; the nineteen were 
inferior, and should be left at the bottom until 
nature disposes of them by elimination, for other- 
wise society wiU not grow permanently better." 

Perhaps some of these men were themselves sent 
to the elementary school merely because the law or 
the custom demanded that they should go. Surely 
what they learned in school and out of school was 
principally knowledge that was bequeathed by past 
generations. Why do not these men argue that each 
succeeding generation should start at the beginning 
and rediscover existing knowledge and redevelop 
a school system, — all in order that character be 



CHUKCH AND SCHOOL 145 

not pauperized ? If all of the twenty children in 
the supposed instance were compelled to attend the 
primary school, and were given wise opportunity 
for further improvement, it could hardly be said 
that only one would make a good and valuable citi- 
zen ; it is more likely that four, six, ten, twelve, or 
even more would do equally as well. 

At the present time but few object to free pub- 
lic elementary schools, and but few more object to 
giving state aid to poor elementary-school pupils. 
Not many thoughtful people now object to com- 
pulsory elementary-school attendance. Five or six 
decades ago there were many who objected seriously 
to all of these things. On the other hand, many peo- 
ple are at present objecting to the public high 
school; they do not understand the great future 
necessity for this institution, or its possibilities. 
The democracy of the past was based on our elemen- 
tary-school system. The advanced democracy that 
the early future promises must be based on an im- 
proved and enlarged high-school system. But en- 
larged high-school capacity will do no good unless 
increased attendance follows. High-school attend- 
ance is relatively expensive, and many parents can- 
not furnish the means to support a family of chil- 
dren through a high-school course. Nevertheless, 
the majority of young people must soon take this 



146 A STUDY IN KINSHIP 

course. Here also is a large and difficult problem, 
and one which the churches can help to solve. 

Would the one child previously mentioned as 
succeeding on his own initiative beyond the nineteen 
be discouraged, if the education of the nineteen 
and of himself were fostered as just suggested? If 
his advancement beyond the nineteen was due not 
to accident, but to superior ability, would he not 
still possess that superior ability, and would he not 
on this account continue in advance of the nineteen ? 
Would not the nineteen make a new and higher 
standard for the abler one to surpass ? If the nine- 
teen, through better opportunity, raise themselves, 
the superior one, by reason of the same bettered 
opportunity, could surely maintain a part of his 
former measure of superiority. The law relating to 
the survival of the fittest would not be antagonized. 
On the contrary, the requirements for unusual success 
would be made more exacting, and Nature's elimina- 
tion of any truly undesirable elements would still go 
on. Such a result should satisfy those who fear that 
aid in the form of opportunity pauperizes character. 

The progressive element of our people might well 
advocate aid in addition to that which obliges the 
parent to send his child through a full elementary- 
school course, and in addition to that which, when 
strictly necessary, obliges the public to pay part or 



CHURCH AND SCHOOL 147 

all of the personal expenses incident to a child's 
attending the elementary school. To supply to any 
properly recommended young man of sixteen an op- 
portunity to work at fair wages for the purpose of 
earning his way through a secondary school would 
be aid of the greatest value. Is it not time for the 
public and for the church to make a business of 
thus providing work ? To be sure, such a plan for 
public aid would deprive the self-supporting stu- 
dents of the experience to be gained from finding 
suitable work for themselves, but the experience so 
lost would soon be gained while seeking employ- 
ment after graduating from the high school. 

Now suppose we have a third group of twenty 
children of the same ages, and in every way equal 
to those described as having been placed in pov- 
erty-stricken houses of slum districts. Suppose that 
this third group is given to twenty families who 
live in a better part of the city, a part where it is 
customary to send children to school until they have 
completed the eighth grade, and where they are ex- 
pected to go to work upon leaving that grade. Let 
us assume that all of the twenty will creditably pass 
the eighth grade, and will then enter some field of 
industry. Judging from past experience, hardly one 
out of a dozen who leave school at the close of the 
eighth grade will afterwards augment his store of 



148 A STUDY IN KINSHIP 

knowledge in any systematic way. At the close o£ 
the eighth grade the reasoning power is usually not 
developed to such a point that it is followed by a 
spontaneous growth which enables the individual 
to cope with religious, social, and political ques- 
tions. At this period the storing of fundamental 
secondary knowledge has just begun, and a fund 
of this knowledge is an invaluable aid in the solu- 
tion of such questions. Nevertheless, the majority of 
this group of twenty would make what we at present 
call good and valuable citizens ; some of them, in 
fact, would be among the best. But a store of sec- 
ondary knowledge, however acquired, is quite as 
essential for what we call manhood-thought as a 
knowledge of the alphabetical sounds is for child- 
hood reading. Without manhood-thought there can 
be no intellectual happiness and no satisfying re- 
ligion. Then why not, regardless of any reasonable 
sacrifice, provide means for our youth to acquire the 
essentials of a secondary education? 

At the prime of life the average man whose school 
experience ended with the eighth grade, and whose 
part of the world's work is manual, does his think- 
ing and expresses his thought with a vocabulary 
of about twenty thousand ^ words fairly well used. 

1 The Popular Science Monthly, vol. Ixx, p. 378, gives this esti- 
mate of the number of words used by men with only a common- 
school education, but who are readers of books and periodicals. 



CHURCH AND SCHOOL 149 

In the field of thought, and in other ways, this man 
has a great advantage over the previously described 
man who was virtually without school opportuni- 
ties and who developed in the poorest section of the 
city. 

Now let us suppose a fourth group of twenty 
children in every way equal to those we have con- 
sidered. Place these children where they will grow 
to manhood in a part of the city that would insure 
healthful physical and moral surroundings, and 
where they would be sent to school through the 
tweKth grade. Suppose the high school that these 
children attend is one of the more efficient ones, — 
a school in which the special abilities of the students 
are likely to be discovered, and in which an earnest 
desire to accomplish something of value within the 
range of these abilities develops into an impelling 
pleasure. By the time he approaches middle life, 
the average earnest high-school graduate reasons 
and expresses his thought with a vocabulary of about 
thirty-five thousand ^ words correctly used. 

In the field of thought, the successful high-school 
graduate has an advantage over the eighth-grade 
graduate similar to that which a carpenter with a 
systematic training and a fair equipment of tools 
has over a carpenter without systematic training 

^ The Popular Science Monthly, vol. Ixx, p. 378. 



150 A STUDY IN KINSHIP 

and with a relatively poor supply of tools. In other 
words, the man who uses thirty-five thousand words 
correctly may expect to learn much more from 
daily practice and study, and he may reasonably 
expect his life to be relatively more effective and 
happy and more nearly in harmony with the world 
than if his school career had been checked so that 
his vocabulary was limited to twenty thousand 
words. The numbers twenty thousand and thir- 
ty-five thousand do not represent the true pro- 
portionate difference in the intelligence of an 
average man from each of the two classes. As a 
rule, the man having the larger vocabulary uses 
his words more accurately. This greater accuracy 
makes the larger vocabulary comparatively of much 
greater value than its numerical size would indi- 
cate. When we consider that every word is a tool of 
thought, it becomes easy to appreciate how it may 
be an immeasurable advantage to have the larger 
vocabulary, and to have a better understanding of 
the words comprising it. This advantage is of both 
economic and social value. 

We do not mean to imply that a high-school 
graduate always develops into a man who is su- 
perior to the eighth-grade graduate. This would be 
far from the truth. In making comparisons we 
must not take into account the high-school gradu- 



CHURCH AND SCHOOL 151 

ate who had no manly purpose in going to school. 
A considerable percentage of our high-school stu- 
dents are sons of rich and well-to-do parents, and 
these young people do not feel the spur of immedi- 
ate necessity to drive them into making good use 
of their school days. Such of these boys who lack 
the common sense to desire a good secondary edu- 
cation often shamefully misuse their own time and 
that of the school. It is not infrequently the case 
that rich and well-to-do parents have children who, 
by reason of false training or almost the total lack 
of training, have lost their ability to get from a sec- 
ondary education the good that it possesses. This 
does not alter the fact that the average boy who has, 
with earnestness, obtained a secondary-school edu- 
cation, in nearly every case has made himself super- 
ior to what he would have been had he left school 
at the close of the eighth grade. 

Suppose that the entire twenty boys referred to, 
after leaving high school, become so situated in act- 
ive life that the majority of those with whom they 
come in contact are equally enlightened, or even 
more enlightened. It must be evident that the 
opportunity of such men to enjoy life and to develop 
character would, as a rule, be far greater than that 
of the previously described groups of twenty who 
receive no secondary-school education, and who 



152 A STUDY IN KINSHIP 

live and develop within a society in which the aver- 
age individual has accumulated noticeably less 
knowledge and has developed proportionally less 
reasoning power. 

As suggested before, and as is quite self-evident, 
a thorough high-school education is necessary before 
self-instruction becomes easily possible and in a 
measure spontaneous. The number of earnest high- 
school graduates who have in after life firmly &K.edL 
the habit of a quiet study hour each evening is 
smaller than it should be, yet it is proportionally 
far greater than that of a corresponding number of 
those without high-school training. In the course 
of fifteen or twenty years a man who spends from 
&ve to ten hours weekly in the systematic study of 
wisely selected topics will be on a higher plane 
than he would have been had his time not been 
well directed. With a companion or companions in 
the study hours, this method yields the highest 
pleasure of which the mind is capable, and, in the 
course of years, the accumulated result outweighs 
all that material wealth could buy, — here is shown 
the greatest advantage that may accrue to the 
earnest high-school graduate. His quiet study hours 
make possible satisfying spiritual development. 

No doubt there are many ways for the church, 
through a department of education, to interest it- 



CHURCH AND SCHOOL 153 

self in the spread of secular knowledge without in 
any way becoming entangled with the system of 
public education. The church, as such, it need 
hardly be said, can have no moral right to intrude 
on the public school until every member of the com- 
munity concerned is voluntarily affiliated with the 
church. But it is surely the duty of every church 
to see that none of its children are lacking in 
thorough elementary schooling. And, furthermore, 
it is surely the duty of the church to see that its 
members are ever willing to pay their taxes for ad- 
ditional elementary schools and for continually im- 
proving the equipment of these schools. The church 
should be second to no institution in calling for 
necessary schools, both elementary and secondary. 
It should advocate the keeping of high-school facili- 
ties ahead of the demand. No doubt the rate of 
increase in high-school taxes would be hastened by 
this course, but in order to promote attendance at 
high school and at the same time keep taxes for 
these schools as low as practicable, a number of pro- 
visions may be made to enable young men and young 
women of sixteen years and over to earn wages for 
self-support and tuition during a part of each day 
and to attend school the remainder of the day. * 

^ See articles on " Public Works High Schools " and "Manufac- 
turing Works High Schools." 



154 A STUDY IN KINSHIP 

The churcli tliat permits one of its children of 
sound mind to reach sixteen years of age without 
having received a most thorough elementary educa- 
tion commits a well-nigh irremediable wrong. Every 
church has among its members eighth-grade gradu- 
ates who have ample mental capacity to acquire a 
thorough secondary education. The church that 
makes no serious effort to see that each such qual- 
ified graduate obtains a valuable secondary educa- 
tion also commits a wrong. This wrong, although 
less extreme than that described in the former case, 
is nevertheless unpardonable. 

Some churches are located in outlying districts 
where no public high school exists, or where the high- 
school capacity is too limited to accommodate all 
who desire admission. An aggressive, determined 
church should not consider such a condition an un- 
surmountable obstacle. The desired result could be 
accomplished, at least in a small measure, by evening 
schools, evening and Sunday study, and social circles, 
aU conducted within the church. Earnest high-school 
graduates, or other persons interested in education, 
could act as volunteer teachers and leaders for these 
evening schools and circles until such time as the 
church had succeeded in inducing the public to 
provide adequate secondary-school facilities to ac- 
commodate all young people who wished to attend. 



CHURCH Am) SCHOOL 155 

The church can further secondary education by 
other means also, and the aggressive church can 
find the means. 

Why is that which we call nature tangible or 
sensible to us? Why have we a desire for know- 
ledge and a mind with which to learn, unless it is 
necessary for our development to learn ? If it were 
bad for us to learn, nature would revolt at our 
effort. Education is slowly revealing nature, and 
nature is the tangible, sensible evidence of God. 
Through this evidence we can more satisfactorily 
contemplate Him. Lack of a generally distributed 
education is responsible for the failure of the 
church to conform its ceremonial details and its 
deeper religious thought to the revealed knowledge 
of God's law, a knowledge which would, if under- 
stood, and applied, give man a harmonious life. 
The church early strayed from the path of its 
deeper usefulness ; but of late, where education has 
had its influence, the church is beginning to right 
the wrongs which it has committed, perhaps un- 
consciously, in being the conservator of a class, 
rather than the teacher of humanity. 

If the essence of this article is not wholly wrong, 
is it not the duty of every fairly enlightened church 
to organize an educational department which shall 
stimulate an interest in school education ? 



156 A STUDY IN KINSHIP 

A few eastern churclies, we are told, take an 
adequate interest in elementary and secondary- 
school education. Why do not all churches take a 
like interest ? Is this neglect due in part to the fact 
that it requires hard work, some money, and a 
spirit of democracy to aid in providing for the laun- 
dress's or gardener's child an education equal to that 
provided for the child of the wealthier member? Is 
the neglect due to the undemocratic fear that it will 
become stiU more difficult and expensive to hire 
common work done, or to the selfish fear that, 
when education becomes general, the rich and well- 
to-do may be obliged to do more nearly their share 
of the common work ? Surely not. 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE' 

" Presume not God to scan ; 
The proper study of mankind is man." 

Stated in the simplest form, the purpose of the 
orthodox church is to teach us how to please God 
and to give us a desire to please Him. The high- 
est thought of this church is open to conviction, 
glad to receive suggestions, and ready to make 
these suggestions, if practicable, a part of the 
church work. In describing a Sunday League of 
which the main purpose is the study of man, the 
author offers what seems to him a working prin- 
ciple, which, if generally applied, would reach many 
of the unchurched two-thirds, and many of the 
churched one-third who do not find themselves fully 
in accord with the present system of church work. 
One purpose of the Sunday League is to make 
every individual strong, self-possessed, happy, and 
of noble character ; another purpose is to create in 
every mind an especial desire to help uplift the 

^ Although the " Sunday League " as described on the following- 
pages is imaginary, nearly every point given is in actual operation 
in one or more communities, and almost every incident cited in the 
narrative has occurred practically as related. 



158 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

next generation ; a further purpose is to seek and 
disseminate that knowledge which best shows how 
to accomplish these results. The object of this 
League, definitely stated, is kept before its mem- 
bers. The first care of the League is to fix its pur- 
pose, concisely and specifically stated, in the minds 
of its children members, so that in the future no man 
can pass the threshold of the League without hav- 
ing this purpose flash clearly before his mind. Any 
noble aim, expressed in few words and in tangible 
form, will in time have a good influence over the 
hardest and dullest minds. To accomplish the pur- 
pose of the Sunday League may seem like asking 
much of any association, but as the Sunday study 
course extends from the age of ^ve years to that of 
forty-five years, it will be seen that what is planned 
can be accomplished without any sense of haste. 
After finishing the study course, the members 
attend sermons where more particular attention is 
paid to religious teachings. These sermons, of 
course, may be attended at any age. It is the pur- 
pose of the League to use the entire Sunday for 
seeking knowledge and recreation in the most ad- 
vantageous manner. 

While listening to lectures, talking with mem- 
bers, and doing some reasoning of our own, we 
have learned some things that may be of interest to 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 159 

the average man. We shall not try to give all we 
learned about the League nor all the arguments in 
its favor ; we shall simply recall enough of the items 
recorded in our memory to give a fair idea of its 
work. 

Naturally, first among these items would be those 
concerning the League's concept of God. Our first 
visit to the League was early one morning •last 
summer. On our way we overtook a member, and 
during our walk together, we inquired concerning 
the concept of God as held by the League. Some 
of the principal points of his reply were as fol- 
lows : — 

"The League originates no definition of God. 
Most of the members believe God to be a power of 
such intelligence as was necessary to create the 
universe. Some of them believe God to be the uni- 
verse. Others believe that the spiritual in us is a 
part of God and one with Him; and still others 
believe that ours is a subordinate spirituality, and 
that the God-intelligence is of a different and 
higher order. The belief of some of the members 
is that God, although He gave us the ability to 
sympathize, is an abstract power without sympathy. 
A few members of the League believe that a God- 
Power started the universe on an orderly world- 
cycle, and that not later than the time when man 



160 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

developed, this Power returned to a dormant state, 
or to some other state of inaction, and left matter 
and force to work out their inevitable destiny, pos- 
sibly with no other result than a return to the orig- 
inal undeveloped state of existence when this world- 
cycle began. The unity of the League is not 
founded on a unity of opinion regarding God. The 
question of the form, the name, or even of the na- 
ture of God does not enter the League, except as 
those advanced in the course may discuss it as a 
purely speculative problem." 

In answer to an inquiry as to the characteristics 
of those having atheistic beliefs, our companion re- 
plied : " Strange to say, these atheists are as kind 
and appear as happy as the other members. They 
feel a strong responsibility for the welfare of others, 
— a responsibility which seems to come from the 
belief or the fear that there may be no God to watch 
over the individual. They have a strong desire for 
the friendship of others, and live principally for 
the faith that others have in them. Since they be- 
lieve that death is the end to all existence, they en- 
deavor, through the pleasures of friendship, to make 
the best of their short term of life, and they ear- 
nestly desire to see all develop the wisdom that will 
guide them to do likewise. These men, like others, 
cling to the idea of a future life, but they do this 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 161 

by regarding their own lives as continued in a 
somewhat modified form in the lives of the next 
generation. Granted a good education that has 
given a fair insight into the innumerable wonders 
of nature, and that has included a broad study of 
man, the atheist's contemplation of the lives of his 
fellow men, — lives which he believes will sooner or 
later pass into non-existence, — arouses a strong 
sympathy for others, a sympathy not dependent on 
personal traits and beliefs. To me this sympathy 
seems as fine as that exhibited by the truly religious 
man. The inexperienced atheistic mind sometimes 
shows a tendency toward rank selfishness; but as 
education advances, time modifies this selfishness, 
and its folly appears. Frequently, too, the atheistic 
view weakens with the deeper insight into nature's 
laws. 

" There are also a few in the League who might 
be called « specieists.' They believe that God does 
not watch over each individual separately, but that 
He created the human family and made a combina- 
tion of physical and psychical laws for its growth. 
' Specieists ' believe that God concerns Himself not 
with the advance of the individual, but only with 
the advance of the race. Some of these men at first 
feel out of harmony with the remainder of the world, 
as does the foolishly selfish atheist just referred to ; 



162 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

but, as with the latter, a reasonable study of the 
wonders of nature modifies this early unbrotherly 
feeling." 

We asked if atheists were not more inclined to 
be fatalists than the other members of the League, 
and were told that fatalism was not noticeable among 
them. As we approached the League grounds, our 
companion directed us to one of the lecture rooms 
in which an address was to be delivered that morn- 
ing on the subject of free will. After a walk of about 
a mile over a country road shaded by trees, we had 
now reached the League entrance. Here we sepa- 
rated, but before doing so, our companion informed 
us that he was at the head of the Personal Appear- 
ance Department, and invited us to call at his home 
some evening to learn about his work. As several 
of his remarks in regard to the department under 
his supervision had excited our curiosity, we readily 
promised ourselves the pleasure of accepting his 
invitation. 

Hundreds of members of all ages were arriving 
at the League, and we went in with the others. On 
entering, our first desire was to walk through the 
grounds, and to this desire we yielded. The place is 
delightful, as an artist-architect has so planned the 
buildings that they harmonize with the natural sur- 
roundings. The grounds, which are about three- 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 163 

fourths of a mile square, are covered with a nat- 
ural forest known as the League Park. A small 
river flows through the grounds, and this has been 
dammed to form a lake. The buildings, which are 
inexpensive, yet attractive, are scattered over a par- 
tially cleared space of about half a mile square in 
the centre of the Park. 

After a hasty inspection of the League grounds, 
we decided to hear the lecture on Free Will, and we 
recall the following thoughts from this lecture : — 

" Some believe that all our actions are foreor- 
dained, and, figuratively speaking, plainly written 
in the great book of the future. To others it seems 
that our mind action is a result of the complex co- 
operation of the five physical senses through a cen- 
tral exchange called reason. This faculty they con- 
sider merely another sense, and to such persons it 
seems that our actions are not strictly foreordained, 
yet must inevitably be what they are. Still others 
believe that our mind is absolutely free and fully 
responsible for its thoughts and acts. Some be- 
lieve human mind action to be attributable partly 
to instinct and partly to free will. Whether we 
have absolute free will or not, we endeavor to sat- 
isfy desire by acting in accordance with a judg- 
ment based on a complex experience. Our volun- 
tary acts are directed by our reason to meet ever- 



164 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

changing conditions. Every voluntary act is pre- 
ceded or accompanied by more or less deliberation, 
which may or may not be voluntary, yet to our 
minds it appears voluntary." 

The words "judgment" and "reason" were 
used by the lecturer to express lesser mind pheno- 
mena than free will. " Since it is such a matter of 
course to think of our acts as originating in free 
will," the lecturer said, " it is evident either that 
God gave us free will, or that he gave us a mind- 
condition that makes it appear to us that we pos- 
sess free wiU. Even if the most advanced minds 
shoidd unite in telling us that we have no free will, 
the instinctive regarding of our acts as prompted 
by free will would continually assert itself. Then, 
too, in every experienced and thoughtful mind, 
there must always remain a doubt as to conclusions 
on this question, as on all others that are purely 
speculative. Since God gave us the instinctive be- 
lief in free will, He no doubt gave it for a purpose, 
and this belief must affect not only our individual 
actions, but all human development. Whether we 
have absolute free will or only a God-given illusion 
of free will, is immaterial so far as our actions and 
duty are concerned. A God-given illusion, so long 
as it lasts, is to all intents and purposes an actual- 
ity. If what has been said is true, each individual 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 165 

must hold himself responsible for his acts. In fact, 
human nature would revolt against the man who 
would attempt to excuse a wicked act on the ground 
that he possessed only instinct and no free will." 

The lecturer said, "I am acquainted with two 
men of strong, active minds, and of unquestioned 
character, who cannot come to any other conclusion 
than that man has no trace of free will. These two 
men act as though they held themselves wholly 
responsible for their own deeds. If there is any 
difference between the actions of these two and the 
actions of other good men, it is that the former do 
not hold their fellow men so responsible for their 
acts as do the latter. It requires considerable abil- 
ity to carry a line of thought as do these two men 
when explaining the process of reasoning that is 
responsible for the belief they hold. By the time a 
man has accumulated a store of knowledge and has 
developed reasoning power of this degree, there is 
smaU likelihood that he will use his belief as an 
excuse for a mean act." 

The next lecturer to whom we listened told his 
class of young people that the only permissible 
reward for pleasing God is the satisfaction a well- 
developed mind finds in seeking and in doing right. 
This gives to the individual the pleasure of being 
in full harmony with the universe. He said : — 



166 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

" The first essential in doing right is of course to 
seek a knowledge of what is right ; this seeking 
eventually brings one to the study of the laws of 
nature in their government of the human mind. 
A study of the human mind usually increases sym- 
pathy for one's fellow men, enlarges and enlight- 
ens the sympathy of the fortunate for the unfortu- 
nate, and of the good for the bad. 

" Man has not yet found a more complex or a more 
highly organized form of life than his own. We 
therefore assume that man is God's highest handi- 
work. This may not be true, but our limited yet 
God -given reason can come to no other conclu- 
sion. Naturally, we judge God's ideals by the high- 
est thoughts of the best developed human minds, 
as far as we can understand these best minds. 
Some say that all that is necessary in order to find 
these ideals is to search the Bible for them. Here 
we must consider that the present average mind, in 
searching a book written largely in unfamiliar terms 
and in the style of a past time, usually understands 
this book imperfectly, and gives its own interpreta- 
tion to a much greater extent than if it were 
searching the mind of another through conversa- 
tion, or through a modern book. While searching 
the Bible for a knowledge of what is right, it is 
well to study also the best there is in the thought- 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 167 

fill minds about you. The Bible is laboring under 
great difficulties, — for tbe average cburch member 
it requires tbe minister as an interpreter. This mem- 
ber hears one or two sermons a week, and of these 
sermons perhaps less than half an hour — a total 
of twenty-six hours a year — is devoted directly 
to the Bible. In many cases this Bible exposition 
is forgotten almost as soon as heard." 

The lecturer insisted that the direct search for 
knowledge of what is right should be more earnest 
and more extended. 

The Sunday League seemed much like an inten- 
sified institutional church. What appeared strange 
to us was that the League considered it immaterial 
whether or not man was God's best handiwork; 
whether or not man's spirit is part of and one with 
God's ; whether man has free will or only instinct, 
or both combined ; whether or not there is a God 
that concerns Himself about us. These, and many 
other beliefs and shades of beliefs, are regarded as 
merely personal opinions which do not materially 
affect the main purpose of the League. 

The liberality of the League in regard to per- 
sonal beliefs made us wonder what were the require- 
ments for membership. Upon inquiry we learned 
that any person wiU be accepted who possesses a fair 
degree of intelligence, and who grants full tolerance 



168 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

of thought and its expression, provided this expres- 
sion does not violate the laws of the land. The prin- 
cipal requirement for membership is a promise that 
the applicant will earnestly pursue the study of man 
for the purpose of a higher self-development, and 
as an aid to the higher development of humanity. 
This study has come to be regarded by most mem- 
bers as the shortest road to wisdom and happiness. 

We commented on the metropolitan aspect of 
the membership, and were told that the League was 
conceived by a young and independent minister. 
He, with a few business men of various occupations, 
and their most trusted employees, established the 
League. Since its object is to uplift humanity, it 
was decided that the society should endeavor to ob- 
tain a large membership and should aim to have all 
nationalities, religions, professions, and trades repre- 
sented as nearly as possible in the proportions found 
in the community. Children applicants who are not 
sufficiently trained, and older persons who desire to 
join but who do not quite come up to all the require- 
ments, are given a preliminary training under the 
care of the membership committee. 

The next Sunday we visited the children's play- 
ground. Here we found a child who was recover- 
ing from the effects of an accident. She had sat 
down in the sunlight near the edge of the little 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 169 

lake where she could watch the children and young 
people at play. We sat down near her, and in reply 
to questions, she told us that she had been a mem- 
ber of the League for three years. She said that 
she liked her Sunday and week-day lessons because 
they make her "more beautiful, more good, and 
more happy,'* and because they teach her how to 
make people about her "more good and more 
happy." She said that every Sunday the teachers 
tell them in what way some part of the lessons of 
the day may serve to make them better or happier. 

At this moment the little patient's teacher came 
to take her away. " Do your members, as a rule, 
regard education as an imperative and religious 
duty after they have passed the age of childhood ? " 
we asked the teacher. 

" Our young people," she replied, " are taught 
to regard their general education as an aid to- 
ward making them genial and helpful members of 
society, and to regard their vocational education 
not only as a means of earning a livelihood, but also 
as a means for becoming economically efficient citi- 
zens. The League keeps this dual purpose of voca- 
tion in the minds of the students while they are 
taking the vocational course at school or in ap- 
prenticeship. Once these purposes of general and 
vocational education are understood by the students 



170 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

whose training tends towards making them thought- 
ful, any slighting of work or its total avoidance 
seems like unfair play ; and any thriving on unpro- 
ductive scheming seems still worse. Students are 
shown how rapidly the requirements of good citi- 
zenship are increasing, and they early realize that 
without a good secondary-school education they can 
hardly expect to become valued members of society. 
Under League environments it requires little effort 
to inspire in the boys a desire to become good citi- 
zens." 

As tjie teacher left, we could but think that if 
all teachers were able to see the wisdom in the re- 
marks just made by this League teacher, they would 
without doubt take greater pains to instill into the 
youth of the land the ideal she expressed. The 
effect of such action by teachers might be slight, 
but it would surely be good. 

We now turned our attention to the "Weekly 
Bulletin published by the League. This Bulletin 
gives the programme for all the meetings of the 
various societies, the lectures, lessons, and sports 
for the day and for the next Sunday. It has a 
question and answer column, and each number con- 
tains articles by members of the League. One val- 
uable feature of the Bulletin is a short review of 
magazine articles that are believed to be of special 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 171 

interest to students of mankind. From the Bulletin 
we learned the following : — 

The League considers a specific study of man 
during and after high-school years absolutely essen- 
tial in preparing its members to aid in the advance- 
ment of humanity. Metaphysical, religious, and 
other speculative subjects are not discussed in the 
study course. In this course the member is taught 
the purport of many of these questions, and the 
different effects with which they have been credited. 
He thus becomes familiar with these questions, and 
this familiarity prevents his becoming a heated 
partisan for any one in particular. He soon learns 
that a partisan-like discussion, especially of specu- 
lative religious questions, is inimical to happiness. 
However, such questions are frequent topics in the 
debating societies, and the general lecturers often 
discuss them. It is understood that a reasonable 
amount of time given to a thoughtful and honest 
investigation of speculative questions is essential 
to progress and happiness. 

The members of the League are divided into 
many minor and wholly independent societies which 
have headquarters on the grounds. Each of these 
societies has for its purpose the raising of the 
standard of manhood in some particular way, or 
the enlightening of its members on some particular 



172 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

question. There are societies for the promotion of 
temperance by prohibition, by high license, by gov- 
ernment sale of liquor, by the sale of beer and the 
exclusion of whiskey ; there are societies for child 
labor control, for and against compulsory secondary 
education, for and against government care of poor 
children ; there are church societies and other or- 
ganizations, formed either for the betterment of 
conditions and the development of character, or 
for study and research in some restricted scientific 
or speculative field. Purely speculative questions 
are closely studied only in the philosophical societies 
of the League, so their discussion does not burden 
the regular course of study. The independent minor 
societies are designed as agencies through which each 
individual may exercise his best judgment as to a 
method of work for the general advancement. As 
stated before, one of the few tenets of the League 
demands tolerance of the views of others. This tol- 
erance, although it is studied at first, leads finally 
to amicable relations between societies opposed in 
theory. Heated attack on the views of others is 
regarded as a loss of time. All arguments between 
opposing societies are made only in print, and, as a 
result, the arguments are fewer and more thought- 
ful. To make the work of these societies more en- 
joyable, the homes of all the larger, permanent ones 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 173 

are equipped for social entertainment. For the pur- 
pose of explaining the activities of these League or- 
ganizations, we shall give extracts from a Bulletin 
article, " Reform by Legal Means." This article 
answers a previous one opposing reform law : — 

" A considerable number of men believe that we 
shall weaken certain classes and cause continued 
deterioration in them if we endeavor to force them 
to be good. These men maintain that if the human 
race is ever to be morally strong and hardy, we 
must allow the individual to develop independently. 
When we, by law, take alcohol away from the alco- 
hol-weakling, we do not make him alcohol-resistant, 
— the weakness stays with him, and if he has no 
alcohol, the weakness will assert itself in some other 
way. These persons also say that when we compel 
the parent to send the child to school, we do not 
improve the parent, as his selfishness remains, nor 
do we remake the child and make it of better blood. 
When we force the trust to reduce the price of a 
staple, we do not make the trust-owners more gen- 
erous, nor do we increase the ability of the public 
to make its own product. Our friends argue that 
there should be no more of law than is absolutely 
necessary for the most evident self-preservation : 
laws against murder by violence, and stealing by act 
of hand are, to their minds, admissible. We will 



174 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

admit that those who are beyond easy redemption 
are perhaps only in rare instances fully redeemed 
through the agency of reform laws. In greater or 
lesser measure the weakness in each case remains 
to assume some other form. The A's cannot harm 
themselves, nor can they harm the B's, without 
harming the C's. When the C's are sufficiently in- 
jured to become aroused, and when their number 
is sufficiently large, they will, with the aid of all 
the B's they can enlist, force the A's to desist ; and 
they will do this regardless of the assertions of the 
A's that this action interferes with the course of 
nature, and that the paternal care of the law weak- 
ens character. The C's will consider that they, too, 
are an element in the course of nature, and that 
what they are trying to do is only a natural pro- 
cess to their advantage and in the interest of their 
conception of right. In so far as this struggle is 
educational, it surely has a permanent effect on the 
character of the nation. 

" The help that the regular League course gives 
the inexperienced is simply the light of special 
knowledge with which to see the way of life more 
clearly and more in detail. The various legal means 
that are advocated by the several independent 
societies of the Leasrue in the numerous fields of 
reform are such as, after years of thought and study, 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 175 

seem wise. The men composing these societies come 
from all fields of activity, have done all branches 
of work, and, after a life of practice and years of 
study and discussion, they believe in certain reforms. 
In view of this, should they permit their experience 
to waste and let things go on as before without an 
effort to better conditions?" 

In another article the Bulletin described a re- 
vision in the study course on the eye. The course, 
as revised, demands one hour each Sunday for 
twenty weeks. It includes additional study in com- 
parative anatomy, and some new ideas on the con- 
nection of the eye with the brain ; it also includes 
the latest theories regarding the sight faculty. We 
were informed that aU the principal parts of the body 
are studied in this leisurely, careful way between 
the ages of twelve and twenty-five years. The Bul- 
letin contained other matter of interest to members ; 
but enough has been given to explain its scope, and, 
incidentally, to explain some things regarding the 
League. 

After reading the Bulletin we permitted our 
thought to wander from one subject to another, and 
among the ideas that presented themselves were the 
following: — 

Could not the League have a department the 
duty of which would be to see that every capable 



176 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

youth obtains a secondary-school education ? The 
League is so large that it might easily establish 
several cooperative enterprises, and the self-sustain- 
ing young people of the League might be given five 
hours daily of progressive employment in these in- 
stitutions, provided they would use their earnings 
to pay the expenses of three hours' daily attendance 
in a high school. At each annual influx of fresh- 
men, the older students would be advanced in their 
industrial work, and in this way the employment 
would be more interesting and instructive. Such a 
plan would be a most practical and thorough way 
to teach industrial business methods. Later, we 
learned that this very thing was being done. . . . 
Could not every orthodox church accomplish much 
by organizing a department to encourage secondary 
education ? ^ . . . What could yield more happiness 
to the individual than to assist in a plan by which 
all children, rich or poor, might have an equal oppor- 
tunity to obtain a good secondary education ? . , . 
One of the striking characteristics of the Sunday 
League is the feeling of fellowship that pervades 
the meetings. These people, all through the forty 
years' course, and even afterwards, are not only 

^ The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social 
Science for November, 1907, shows the results of church work 
along practical advanced lines. 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 177 

students, but also close observers of educational 
methods and results. Their observation ranges from 
a study of the simplest rudiments of language and 
mathematics to that of psychology and other sci- 
ences. Most members of the League appear to 
have been lifelong acquaintances. Is it not prob- 
able that a wise study of man gives one an insight 
into the nature of his fellow man so that weeks will 
develop as ripe an acquaintance or friendship as 
under other conditions might require years ? . . . 
But, after all, is it probable that the majority of 
men will ever be able to understand clearly a study 
like psychology; and is it not less probable that 
they will gain this understanding through pleasur- 
able effort ? We recall our grammar-school exper- 
ience. Most of those who left school at the end of 
the eighth grade were as capable, mentally, as those 
who continued and successfully completed the 
course. We believe that under a systematic train- 
ing the capacity for learning possessed by a large 
majority of the workers of society is quite as great 
as that possessed by the planners and schemers. If 
the church does its best to see that all children re- 
ceive a high-school education, and if other reform 
forces do not lessen their efforts, the average man, 
within a few generations, could easily be as famil- 
iar with the phenomena of the human mind as the 



178 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

special students are now. It is well known that a 
great number of our best students along all lines 
are those whose parents and grandparents were la- 
boring men. ... If a man's treatment of his fel- 
low man is the best index of his character, it would 
seem reasonable to consider a study of man as one 
of the principal requirements of education. For in- 
stance : to refrain from telling a falsehood because, 
if discovered, your reputation would be injured, or 
because you were taught as a child not to tell a 
lie, or because the Bible demands that you tell only 
the truth, is not what, in this age, should be con- 
sidered an expression of intelligent character. To 
withstand a temptation to speak a falsehood because 
that which is called self-respect does not permit 
the untruth, may or may not be due to intelligent 
character. To refrain from telling a falsehood be- 
cause you understand the possible bad effects that 
any falsehood may have on others as weU as on your- 
self, and because you understand the criminality of 
an act that injures humanity, is intelligent char- 
acter. A falsehood is always told for some personal 
advantage. If, by means of falsehood, you receive 
or retain credit for greater goodness or ability than 
you possess, you indirectly injure others and di- 
rectly injure yourself. In a not very remote way, 
every falsehood is a parasitic act. The mere mental 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 179 

influence on others of hearing even what is called 
a " white lie "from the lips of one supposed to be 
true, is an injury to those who hear it, and to all 
humanity. Every time a man hears an untruth, his 
confidence in human character is lowered. If his 
confidence is lowered, he almost invariably shows 
this mistrust in his actions, and this reacts on all 
with whom he comes in contact. People with little 
strength of character tell falsehoods without hesi- 
tation. A falsehood from such a source does not 
shock an experienced man, but the effect of such a 
falsifier on what might be called the inter-human 
confidence is extremely damaging. The telling of 
a falsehood, even if the falsity is never discovered, 
has some psychological effect that tends to destroy 
this mutual confidence. . . . The different forms 
of indirect injury that any instance of the lowering 
of confidence may effect are innumerable, as are 
the more direct injuries due to falsehoods. Every 
falsehood is an injury to humanity, and no one can 
foretell the damage that any particular falsehood 
may cause. It is only the enlightened student of 
man who can fully appreciate the value of truth 
to humanity. This enlightened student, on account 
of knowing the value of truth, and on account of the 
character acquired while becoming enlightened, is 
almost the only man who habitually speaks his true 



180 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

belief, and who is brave enougb to do so. Occa- 
sionally a man of little education and experience 
is absolutely truthful, and in thought, at least, 
every one honors him. These exceptions, like all 
exceptions to general rules, prove nothing until 
understood through study and research. ... As 
self-evident as the value of truthfulness is to the 
enlightened man, experience has taught that it 
cannot be instilled into the human mind by admo- 
nitions to refrain from untruths. Not until we have 
advanced farther in the study of man, and have ap- 
plied the acquired knowledge to all economic, social, 
and political questions for a considerable time, can 
we expect character that will be habitually truthful. 
Every thoughtful man knows what an uplift the 
simple, direct truth between men would give to life. 
The goodness that comes from understanding man, 
and from the character formed during the develop- 
ment of this understanding, is true and will last. 
To this kind of goodness must we look for relief 
from present social difficulties ; and this kind of 
goodness must be in accord with God, because it is 
intelligent goodness. . . . Knowledge of the latest 
facts discovered concerning man's mind' and body 
is useful for the purpose of uplifting humanity. 
In order to make a speedy yet steady and easy 
headway in such knowledge, a secondary-school 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 181 

education is an almost indispensable foundation. Al- 
though a knowledge of all facts discovered would 
be useful to the average man, he cannot hope to 
become so well informed ; but under favorable con- 
ditions he can probably learn enough so that hu- 
manity will advance at many times its present rate. 
When a slowly acquired and clear knowledge of the 
most important needs of man is more general, a way 
to have these needs supplied will readily be found. 
. . . How to aid in the equipment of the ordinary 
individual member so as best to enable him to do 
his share in the uplifting of humanity, is a vital 
question for any church. Strange to say, very few 
churches treat this as a distinct and vital question. 
The wisdom of any individual church may well be 
measured by its effort in this direction. . . . 

" Can I show you anything here to-day ? " an 
acquaintance asked. This question ended our medi- 
tations. We replied that he might show us any- 
thing he pleased, if he would first tell us about the 
course of study prescribed by the League. 

" It requires but a moment's thought," he replied, 
" to convince one that the outlining of a well-defined 
and wise course for the study of man is a task that 
only men of the broadest education and of a partic- 
ular mental endowment can be expected to work 
out without much difficulty. The League had at first 



182 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

no experienced or professional advisers. The min- 
ister who conceived the League and his associates 
discussed the plan of study for several years before 
even a preliminary trial course was formulated. 
Since then a curriculum committee of six has experi- 
mented with the study programme, and has done re- 
markably well. This shows that very often men of 
fair general education can, in an emergency, do work 
that ordinarily requires specialists. Several of the 
older members make it their constant study to im- 
prove the curriculum. 

" To describe the study course in a very general 
way, I may say that the first part is really in the 
public school. The League aims to take an encour- 
aging interest in school children and in the school 
system. When a child is unable to keep up in any 
study because the week-day teacher cannot find suf- 
ficient time for his particular case, the League tries, 
on Sunday, to aid him in whatever way it can. This 
aid is given by volunteers who, for the most part, 
are high-school graduates that are being trained as 
public-school teachers. Graduates of the League 
also assist. This aid is given strictly in accordance 
with advice received from the school which the child 
attends. As both parents and children attend the 
Sunday League, it is in closer touch with the par- 
ents than is the public school. Because of this closer 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 183 

touch, the League can more conveniently and more 
intelligently interest the parents in the child's needs. 
In this way the child is almost certain to have their 
sympathy and aid. Wise aid given occasionally to a 
child below the average in ability means happiness 
and progress to the little one ; without this aid, 
the child might be most miserable. The first care 
of the committee on education is to see that each 
child has an elementary and a secondary-school edu- 
cation, and that this education is as thorough as 
possible. 

" The public school, especially the high-school de- 
partment, gives the matter of health as much atten- 
tion as time permits. Valuable as is this knowledge 
when taught in the high school, it is considered the 
imperative duty of the League to carry this study 
still farther. We all know that it is impossible for 
a man to be at his best in character if his health is 
below the normal. To understand the relative value 
of food materials, to understand the laws of diges- 
tion and of assimilation, we need to know some- 
thing of organic chemistry. To understand the eyes, 
we need to know, among other things, the laws of 
light ; to understand the ears, we need to know the 
laws of sound, and so on. To learn even the rudi- 
ments of these sciences, one must have a fair gen- 
eral knowledge of language and of mathematics. 



184 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

Botany, zoology, comparative anatomy, as well as 
other sciences, are well worth studying for the pur- 
pose of better understanding man's body and its re- 
quirements. The study of body is a preliminary to 
the study of mind, and a knowledge of mind is of 
value in the pursuit of health as well as in the pur- 
suit of social happiness. To these ends we find a 
complete scientific high-school course indispensable. 

" You may say that such knowledge is for the 
physician, the oculist, the athletic instructor, and 
other specialists. We have these men with us now, 
but they can accomplish more when those for whom 
they work understand their advice and the reason 
for it. The specialist's duty is to obtain accurate 
and broad knowledge of his subject and to teach 
this knowledge ; the layman's duty is to be able to 
understand it. But both the specialist and the lay- 
man have much to learn in regard to making our 
bodies healthy, strong, and beautiful. The League 
gives a course on personal appearance which enables 
the poor man to look quite as neat as does the man 
of average means. 

" There is a course that presents briefly the his- 
tory of speculative questions. The course includes 
a short exposition of the principal theories of nat- 
ural law, and of the various religious, ethical, scien- 
tific, and philosophical subjects of controversy in 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 185 

both the past and the present. This short course in 
speculative thought shows that theorizing is end- 
less. The lectures are designed to create more re- 
spect for the opinions of others ; to sober argument 
of a speculative nature, and, incidentally, to moder- 
ate all other argument. More knowledge of past 
speculative questions will tend to save for humanity 
time that would otherwise be lost by reason of a too 
literal repetition of thought generation after genera- 
tion. You may question the average man's interest 
in these speculative questions. The average man 
thinks, and lacking accurate knowledge of the his- 
tory of past speculative thought, he readily becomes 
a partisan upon these questions, as well as upon sim- 
ple questions of fact. It is surprising to see how the 
little time given to these lectures sobers controversy. 
" There is a course in social and political science 
which gives a fairly well-defined idea of these sub- 
jects in all their branches. Each year a different 
branch is given special study. One year, attention 
may be concentrated on intemperance and the drug 
habit ; another year, upon the production and dis- 
tribution of wealth ; another, on public education ; 
another, on religion in relation to politics. This year 
attention is directed to intemperance and the drug 
habit. The plan of giving special attention to a cer- 
tain branch of social or political science each year 



186 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

is continued for ten years, and then the programme 
is repeated with such variations as experience and 
fuller understanding may dictate. Time is too limited 
to permit of each member's taking all of the ten 
branches specially studied, but he is expected to 
study one branch between his twentieth and thir- 
tieth years, as it is considered the duty of every citi- 
zen to understand at least one of these subjects to 
the extent that they are taught by the League. As 
far as possible the classes are so arranged that each 
year a different tenth of the members can take one 
of the special subjects. In this way every member 
has broad general training in at least one branch of 
social and political science, and social intercourse 
diffuses the knowledge of all ten branches among 
all of the members. 

" After the high-school period, studies in science, 
literature, and art are continued at intervals until 
the end of the League course. The young married 
women are given a course in the duties of mother- 
hood ; the young married men, a course in the duties 
of fatherhood. Those young women who did not take 
a course in domestic science in the high school are 
given an outline course in the League. Ethics is 
given careful study. Outlines of the various reli- 
gions of to-day, and a short history of all religion 
are included in the course. Outdoor nature studies 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 187 

receive special attention, and, to tliis end, the chil- 
dren spend two or three entire Sundays of each 
summer in making excursions to the hills or to the 
beach. An outline of anthropology is given and is 
most eagerly studied. All sociological topics are dis- 
cussed to a greater or less extent. Psychology is 
a favorite study with many of the older students. 
Almost the entire course is simply a forty years' 
study of man, and this study is based, wherever pos- 
sible, upon a secondary-school education which has 
been received at the proper age. 

" To understand even as short an article on ethics 
as is found in the larger encyclopedias requires a 
mind that has at least the training of secondary edu- 
cation, and one in which a fair degree of reasoning 
power is developed. Nine out of every ten men have 
minds that could, with little effort, have been so 
trained as readily to understand such an article. 
At present, however, even after most careful read- 
ing, hardly one out of ten would understand it 
fully. A single instance like this should arouse all 
to a sense of the futility of trying to teach a man 
who is not naturally good to be soundly and firmly 
good, before he possesses a fair education. 

" Although practically the entire course is for the 
study of man, it diverges and takes up political and 
social science topics as such. The special attention 



188 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

thus given to these subjects will be necessary until 
industrial, economic, social, and political conditions 
are fully understood through week-day education. 

" The study of the body and its care is combined 
with all kinds of athletics, out-of-door nature-study, 
singing, and other exercises that require only the 
most pleasurable mental exertion. These courses 
are given to the children who attend school during 
the week, and the nature of the work is such that 
the Sunday activity is not simply a continuation 
of school work. In an attractive and effective way, 
good manners and moral and ethical principles 
adapted to their age are at all times taught the chil- 
dren. 

" Beginning with the fourteenth grade, the study 
sessions are devoted principally to lectures, during 
which the students ask questions, discuss the topic, 
and take notes. At the close of the term, each stu- 
dent prepares a thesis on an assigned subject, and 
on the thoroughness of this thesis depends his privi- 
lege of entering a higher course." 

Here we expressed our satisfaction with our 
friend's explanation of the study courses, and in- 
quired about the teaching force. He replied, "All 
except the few special teachers, whom we call lec- 
turers or ministers, are volunteers. Any graduate 
of the fourteenth grade may have his application 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 189 

for a position as teacher entered on the waiting-list. 
The average youth passes the twelfth, or the last 
high-school grade, at eighteen years of age. Each 
League degree requires but one year, and is given 
with the corresponding school grade. After the 
twelfth grade, the League degrees are granted an- 
nually to those following prescribed courses up to 
the age of forty-five. The placing and retiring of 
teachers is in the hands of a teacher's committee 
composed of members and paid lecturers. 

" There is no salary attached to any of the posi- 
tions except those which are filled by the lecturers, 
and these paid positions require daily work as well 
as general supervision of the Sunday courses. The 
regular Sunday positions are filled by men and 
women who do this work for the love of it. It is a 
rare occurrence to see a volunteer teacher retired 
after he has been allowed to teach for a year. 
Usually a teacher who has been retired from one 
study will at once place his name on the waiting- 
list for any position the committee may offer for 
which he is prepared. It is considered an honor to 
be tried, and each one tried is expected to admit 
that the committee knows better than he which 
teacher best meets the needs of the students. He is 
also expected to realize that the feeling of resent- 
ment is extremely childish, besides being a hindrance 



190 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

to the success of the institution for which, if neces- 
sary, he is supposed to be willing to sacrifice him- 
self. Each teacher appointed, no matter how much 
he may enjoy his position, is expected to do his best 
to prove that his loyalty to the League so far tran- 
scends any personal feeling that he will welcome 
displacement if the committee finds a substitute 
that it considers superior to him. Even should he 
believe that the committee acted in bad faith in 
displacing him, he will be expected to remain 
with the League and to use his power wisely in the 
interest of right as he sees it. He who fulfills these 
expectations is magnanimous, and is considered of 
the highest value to the League. So vital do we 
regard the influence of perfect character, that we 
consider the League indestructible as long as at 
least one out of every twenty-five of its members 
is truly magnanimous. Partly for this reason, the 
member is valued much more for his character than 
for any special ability he may possess. 

" All teachers who have not finished the League 
course are required to continue their League studies 
and to write their theses. Each teacher is supposed 
to have a class of about fifteen students. The full- 
time volunteer Sunday teachers have classes for 
four hours during the day, while the time given by 
other volunteers varies from one to three hours. 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 191 

At least half of the teachers are workingmen, their 
wives, their daughters, or their sons. For instance, 
one of the teachers is a foreman carpenter whose 
subject is Human Habitations. This subject in- 
cludes the history of human dwellings from the 
time of the cave, cliff, and tree dwellers to the 
present time. He has taught this subject for fifteen 
years, has written the text-book used by the classes, 
and is now regarded as an authority on this sub- 
ject. This teacher lectures one hour every Sunday, 
and the course consists of fifteen lectures. In this 
way, by having classes of fifteen or twenty mem- 
bers, he can teach the entire League membership. 
The carpenter's wife is an assistant teacher in 
domestic science. This husband and wife were 
elected to their positions on account of special in- 
terest and ability shown in the preparation of one 
of their annual theses. Physicians, lawyers, mu- 
sicians, and scientists freely give of their time for 
Sunday lectures. One out of about every ten 
members over twenty-five years of age is acting as 
teacher in some capacity, and no people are happier 
on Sunday than these teachers and their pupils." 

At this point our acquaintance invited us to 
accompany him to the League restaurant for lunch- 
eon. We told him that we were much interested in 
this feature of the League, and requested him to 



192 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

tell us all about it. The following points are the 
most interesting ones that he gave : — 

" Meals are served from eleven a. m. to two P. M., 
and from five to seven p. m. The classes and the 
various amusements are so arranged that meals are 
in nearly uniform demand during these hours. Food 
is sold at a price that leaves five per cent of the 
gross income for the general League fund. Many- 
meals are served, so the cost of preparation amounts 
to very little per meal. The dining-room is operated 
more like a cafeteria than like the usual restaurant, 
and meals cost very little more than the price of 
materials used in similar meals prepared at home. 
The manager and enough help to operate the res- 
taurant on week days are steadily employed. This 
help is composed of young people, and is divided 
into two groups, each working six hours a day. 
These groups have their hours for duty so arranged 
that one half may attend a morning session in high 
school or college, and the other half an afternoon 
session. Each member of this week-day corps of 
workers remains on duty all day Sunday, but each 
is relieved from duty one day during the week. 
Much more help is required on Sunday, and this is 
supplied first by volunteers, then by League mem- 
bers selected by lot for five consecutive Sundays. 
The wholesome, inexpensive restaurant meals are 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 193 

recognized as the feature that makes it possible for 
many members, especially those who are parents 
with large families and without ample means, to 
attend the League all day and evening. For this 
reason those who are selected by lot are expected 
to do their work cheerfully. Teachers, those with 
other special duties, and all older members, are 
exempt from restaurant duty unless they volunteer. 
Of the younger members, those who have once 
been chosen by lot are exempt from further duty 
till all available ones have served their turn, then 
all names are again placed on the list. The regular 
help consists of young League members who wish 
to learn the business and to attend school. Every 
League activity has an educational value. With 
the exception of the manager, each person regularly 
employed in the restaurant is given a certain branch 
of the work for a prescribed length of time ; and 
the work is so divided that each worker, by pro- 
gressive steps, may learn the entire business, as far 
as this plan for progressive division of labor is 
feasible. The manager is a capable man developed 
within the League, and excellent work upon his 
part is regarded as essential to the success of the 
League. Volunteer workers may, by agreeing to 
work regularly every Sunday, take the restaurant 
course as do the regular workers, but the taking of 



194 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

the course in this way naturally extends it over a 
much longer period. 

" The Sunday business of the restaurant is very 
large, as many non-members come to enjoy the 
grounds and the band concerts. The considerable 
extent of the business gives exceptional opportuni- 
ties to learn the best methods of accounting. There 
is a great deal to learn in the operation of a 
restaurant which is so conducted that the meals are 
scientifically prepared, and every pound of material 
is taken into account. For some, this work is even 
fascinating, — it appears to be a real pleasure to 
wear an apron and act as assistant cook or waiter 
for a gathering which consists largely of relatives 
and friends. Especially is this a pleasure when one 
is regarded as a student of the business. Besides 
the practical education referred to, this employ- 
ment gives an exceptional opportunity to study 
human nature, and thus aids in the study of man. 
Furthermore, a close industrial contact with others, 
and a close practical study of any well-developed 
business, are great social educators. 

"These student employees receive thirty cents 
per hour for such time as they work. Not all of 
the restaurant students follow this business in later 
life, but the business training alone is believed to 
be worth while. All the student workers who are 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 195 

engaged at the restaurant regularly six hours a day 
attend either our public high school for self-support- 
ing students, or a college in the city. In the grant- 
ing of employment in its several departments, the 
League recently decided to give preference to self- 
supporting students. 

" Assuming a previous or present high-school 
training in chemistry and bookkeeping, the restau- 
rant course requires from one to two years of prac- 
tical work and study in food preparation." 

"We were also shown several noteworthy details 
that would be of interest to men in the restaurant 
business. 

While at luncheon, we referred to the unusual 
degree of comradeship manifested between hus- 
bands and wives. Our acquaintance thought this 
was due to the fact that both take parts of the same 
extended Sunday study course, and, when possible, 
join the same classes. To a certain extent this class 
work creates a similarity of thought which leads to 
closer comradeship. He said that those studies 
which relate particularly to man tend especially to 
strengthen the companionship and mutual sympathy 
of those who live and learn together. 

"Who provides the means to erect all these 
buildings and to keep them in such good repair ? " 
we asked. 



196 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

" As yet, the buildings are provided largely by 
tbose members who are, financially, more success- 
ful," our companion replied. " Mechanic members, 
when out of work, sometimes give their services 
free, and the majority of the League ministers 
know how to do a mechanic's work. They have but 
little time to spare, but that little is often willingly 
given to the hammer or the saw when this service 
is needed. Our ministers, you see, are practical men 
who accept only moderate salaries and Kve simple, 
unostentatious lives — lives that are an inspiration 
to the community. These men find the pleasure of 
preaching to an intelligent, appreciative audience 
a privilege beyond price. The League, I must 
add, does not debar women from entering the min- 
istry. 

" The building committee decides on all building 
plans ; these plans, however, must be approved by a 
majority of the graduate members. Those two new 
buildings at your right, — those in cottage style, — 
for instance, were approved by ninety-five per cent 
of these members. The home idea caught them. 
You see, they are day-nursery buildings where 
mothers who are teaching or engaged in other work, 
or mothers who are attending the lectures, can 
leave their children during certain hours of the day. 
This building at your left is our new library build- 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 197 

ing. A little farther on is the public high school, 
on a lot sold to the county. This school is attended 
half-time, or one session each day, by young people 
employed in various capacities the remainder of 
the day, and by the children of neighboring farm- 
ers. The school was established for self-supporting 
students. The same course is given both forenoon 
and afternoon, thus accommodating all. The League 
recently purchased sixteen acres of land adjacent 
to the grounds, and has divided this acreage into 
eight two-acre lots. As an experiment, six of these 
lots are to be rented to as many self-supporting 
students of the agricultural department of the high 
school. If these students wish, any two will be 
allowed to form a partnership and operate their 
land jointly ; one can then attend school in the 
forenoon, and the other in the afternoon. The rent 
will cover the taxes, and the leases will contain 
certain requirements with which they must comply. 
Six of the oldest and most enterprising students 
have formed three partnerships and will soon try 
the experiment. It has been estimated that any 
earnest, capable student of the agricultural depart- 
ment can make more than a living from the two 
acres. The instructor in horticulture will use the 
two remaining lots as an experiment station. This 
half-day plan is bringing about remarkable results, 



198 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

because the students have learned economic and 
educational values. 

" On Sundays, the high-school building is used 
for lecture rooms. We have two amusement haUs 
with weU-appointed stages. Over there on the hill- 
side among the trees is our Greek theatre, where, 
in favorable weather, lectures, concerts, and plays 
are given. During inclement weather the entertain- 
ments are given in the haUs. The players and mu- 
sicians are usually members of the League who are 
of artistic temperament, and much of their work is 
better than some that is considered professional. 
These men and women donate their services on 
Sunday. One group has developed talent equal to 
that of the better professional actors, and each Sun- 
day they give creditable performances of such plays 
as are not only artistic, but morally instructive. 
These Sunday plays attract large numbers of non- 
members from the city. 

" This power house we are passing is operated by 
a few high-school students under the guidance of a 
teaching manager. Surplus light and power are sold 
to the neighboring farmers at a small margin of 
profit. The plant is operated in much the same way 
as the restaurant." 

We soon reached the limits of the space reserved 
for buildings, and the conversation turned to the rem- 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 199 

nant of forest that surrounds the reserved square. 
We were told that the park is open to the public 
every day from seven A. M. to ten P. M. In the even- 
ing the grounds are always brilliantly illuminated. 
On Saturday, school children are carried on the cars 
from the city to the League for five cents a round 
trip. 

" For the building of character, one of the best 
results of League education is early marriage. The 
League, through its concern for the next genera- 
tion, takes a deep, yet unobtrusive interest in every 
wedding, — an interest which is confined largely to 
the careful teaching of the purposes, duties, and 
ethics of married life. This care for the next gener- 
ation creates a desire to have every union as nearly 
ideal as possible. As a result, divorces among 
League members are rare and solenm occasions. 
The private life of the members, except such quiet 
study hours as they may maintain at their homes, 
is an open book. Through the effect of the study 
of man, and through the intellectual contact with 
older people who have taken the study, the young 
people learn to know one another as well at twenty 
or twenty-five years of age as they would otherwise 
at thirty or thirty-five. This knowledge makes 
marriage less of a lottery. The League education 
makes a simple and inexpensive way of living look 



200 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

attractive to young people, and it teaches how a 
sensible young couple can live comfortably on the 
earnings of an able man of twenty-five. If all 
people should become wise enough at twenty-five 
to be able to lead happy married lives, and if con- 
ditions favored the finding of the right kind of life 
partner, how little of vice would be left ! Marriage 
under such conditions would make the rearing of 
children the greatest of pleasures, and the much-de- 
plored race suicide would be permanently checked. 
The man who has had a good educational training 
up to his twenty-fifth year and who has seen much 
of the best side of life, is mentally better prepared 
to marry than is the average man of thirty-five. It 
is the ignorance that prevails between the ages of 
sixteen and twenty-five, and the inexperience in 
things that are good, that are chiefly responsible 
for the start on the road to immorality. 

In answer to a question, w^e were told that the 
Sunday League is maintained by moderate quarterly 
dues, which vary in amount, by certain profits, and 
by certain admission fees required from non-mem- 
bers. An inheritance fund is becoming popular, and 
is growing to some proportions. The income from 
this fund may be used for League expenses, and 
the principal may be used for buildings. The re- 
strictions upon the use of this fund are generally 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 201 

satisfactory, and any one wishing to do so can be- 
queath any sum to the fund. Notwithstanding the 
fact that the dues are moderate, some think that 
they cannot afford to join the League. Often, how- 
ever, the solicitor for membership can prove to such 
persons that by cutting down his expenses for to- 
bacco, theatres, excursions, and other items that can 
be curtailed or entirely dispensed with, the League 
dues can easily be paid. Then, too, the educational 
benefits are sometimes estimable in dollars, for the 
entire study course shows the advantages of simple 
living, and teaches numerous economies not known 
to many inexperienced husbands and wives. 

The activity around us turned our thoughts to 
the empty homes with the unused kitchens and the 
bare dining-tables. We asked our companion if 
some of these people did not miss the Sunday home 
dinner and its social influence, and whether the en- 
tire Sunday away from home did not impair home 
life. 

" Saturday evening," he replied, " has become, 
with many, the time for the weekly family reunions. 
The young men whose work keeps them away from 
home all the week come back for the Saturday even- 
ing dinner, remain to attend the League on Sunday, 
and then return to the place of their employment 
at night or early Monday morning. Whenever the 



202 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

mother can attend the League, she has a day of 
genuine change and rest, and each child has proba- 
bly had a better time than he would have had at home. 
Besides his Sunday lesson designed to impress some 
moral principle, the child may have received train- 
ing in the gymnasium, or the swimming pool, or 
he may have spent time among the trees and flowers. 
At the gymnasium he may have been taught the 
value of some physical exercise for the correction of 
a slight imperfection of his body. Perhaps the rules 
of some outdoor sport were taught to the class while 
the game was being practiced. Here I may explain 
that it is one of the purposes of the gymnasium to 
teach the children how to play many outdoor games. 
The Sunday spent in this wholesome way gives food 
for thought, and the home life as well as the busi- 
ness life of the ensuing week is energized." 

In the afternoon we listened to one of the series 
of lectures for children who were about to pass the 
sixth grade. In the evening we heard a similar but 
more mature discussion of secondary education. 
This was given to children about to leave the eighth 
grade. Many parents were present at both lectures. 
At these lectures we noticed what we had observed 
before, — the uniformly courteous manner and the 
pleasing personal appearance of the great majority 
of the members. It was difficult to distinguish the 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 203 

merchant or the .doctor from the mechanic or the 
laborer ; all were equally interested in any plan for 
the uplifting of humanity. A fair knowledge of 
man tends to inspire modesty, yet such knowledge 
tends at the same time to inspire seK-confidence. 
Modesty, with confidence, produces the best man- 
ners. So much for personal actions. In personal 
appearance there was no material difference among 
the members. One member with moderate earnings 
might have five or six children to support, but that 
did not seem to affect his own good appearance. 
At first thought it may be considered a small mat- 
ter, yet if the appearance of the individuals in a 
large League gathering were changed to that of 
the usual public gathering, the League would soon 
lose much of its attractiveness, and might finally 
cease to exist as a democratic institution. 

These thoiights led us to accept the invitation 
of the head of the Personal Appearance Depart- 
ment to call at his home. In due time our host took 
us into his combined study and workshop, where we 
learned many things that interested us. After the 
gymnasium was established, the instructor saw the 
need of improving the appearance of some of his 
pupils, and he realized that the desired improve- 
ment would be a difficult task. Accordingly, a de- 
partment for this purpose was established and placed 



204 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

in the care of our host. The ambition of this man 
is to teach every individual how to present a neat 
appearance. He is constantly endeavoring to dis- 
cover inexpensive methods by which all wage-earn- 
ers and their families may, by the expenditure of 
little money and some energy, be quite as present- 
able as are those who have more wealth and who 
have had better opportunities to learn the ways and 
means to present a good appearance. It required 
work and patience before the department succeeded 
in raising the standard of tidiness to its present 
level; now, however, good personal appearance is 
such a matter of course that, without special effort, 
the children learn how to be neat and clean. 

In order to give an idea of the value of this de- 
partment, we shall try to explain briefly one of 
the many divisions of its most practical and inter- 
esting work. For example, it publishes a pam- 
phlet on the care of the teeth. This pamphlet 
describes the various difficulties encountered by 
different persons in keeping the teeth in order, 
and gives instructions for keeping them in good 
condition and looking attractive at nominal ex- 
pense. The pamphlet tells the inexperienced that 
those who have normal mouth secretions need only 
use dental floss daily and rinse the teeth with water ; 
others less fortunate in this respect must, in addi- 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 205 

tion, use brush and powder ; while for still others 
further treatment of the teeth is prescribed. It is 
shown how a person requiring the daily use of pow- 
der and brush in addition to the floss must spend 
for this purpose, even with careful buying, at least 
f 1.25 per year. The pamphlet also shows how this 
expense can be reduced to twenty-five cents per 
year. This saving is brought about in part by the 
use of a home-made dental floss and powder. A 
new and economical device in toothbrushes is de- 
scribed, and is to be introduced by the League. 
Many families of six who purchase supplies in the 
ordinary way pay at least $7.50 for floss, brushes, 
and powder. This is more than the less fortunate 
can pay, and without these essentials, the teeth are 
more or less neglected. By following the advice 
given in the pamphlet, the expense for such a 
family may be reduced so that it will not exceed 
fl.50 per year. Although the materials recom- 
mended are inexpensive, their use will keep the 
teeth in perfect order. All materials recommended 
for the care of the teeth are endorsed by the den- 
tists in the League and by several of the best den- 
tal colleges. 

As it is with the teeth, so it is with everything 
about the appearance of even the humblest mem- 
bers : the straw hat will be white and fresh as new, 



206 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

yet it may be old ; the collar and tie will be fault- 
lessly clean ; the shoes wiU be well polished with a 
home-made polish of serviceable yet most inexpens- 
ive material, and by special treatment they wiU 
be made to wear well ; the clothes, even though in- 
expensive, will be spotless and free from dust ; the 
hair, face, and hands will show that their owner 
has learned how to take care of them. This de- 
partment has found such inexpensive and ingenious 
ways to accomplish these and other things that the 
usual income of a laboring man's family, even if 
the family is large, will permit the carrying out of 
these details. This, however, might not be possible 
if the other departments did not show how to spend 
the income to the best advantage in other directions. 
These practical methods of economy are published, 
and they are especially appreciated by young mar- 
ried people who are building and furnishing new 
homes. 

The Sunday League has much in common with 
the Institutional Church, the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association, the University Settlement, and 
certain phases of Chautauqua work. It might almost 
be taken for a composite of these activities. The 
League, however, has on Sundays both the week- 
day work and the Sunday work of the two first-men- 
tioned institutions ; but it is not more for Christians 



THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 207 

than for those belonging to the long list of other 
faiths among which men are divided. The purpose 
of the League is the raising of the standard of man- 
hood and womanhood regardless of religious belief. 
Differing religious beliefs have their place in the 
League if they wish place, as the thoughtfully 
planned methods in no way interfere with the 
free expression of the individuality of its members. 

Another point in which the League differs from 
the other institutions mentioned is in the fact that, 
eventually, it is to be maintained entirely by the 
regular dues for membership; it will not accept 
donations, except such gifts as may be willed to its 
inheritance fund. This sentiment is the outgrowth 
of increased knowledge and the consequent spirit 
of independence. In time, a fair knowledge of man 
will be possessed by practically all ; and at such 
time each individual will be respected and honored 
in proportion to his perfection of character. The 
money ideal will fade as true knowledge advances, 
and no one will be granted the privilege of paying 
more than his proper share towards any public 
activity. 

To the League, the uplifting of humanity means 
not only a bettering of the laborer's condition, but 
an effecting, through education, of the virtual elimi- 
nation of laborer and master as separate classes. 



208 THE SUNDAY LEAGUE 

The League is confident that two generations of 
education, approximate justice, right living condi- 
tions, and freer sway to individuality, — all of which 
things are furthered by its work, — will fairly accom- 
plish this end. The true friend of humanity can have 
no rest until all men have the opportunity for the 
highest development of which they are capable. The 
common and most essential work will not suffer in 
the hands of educated men, whereas at present it 
often suffers in the hands of the uneducated. This 
is a long look ahead, but the best way to accomplish 
an end is to keep the final purpose fresh in mind so 
that every effort made along the way will be an effort 
in the right direction. 

With variations that are not vital, the Sunday 
League is in existence at the present time. Its good 
features, however, are scattered, some here and some 
there. By the universal law of attraction, they are 
drawing together to build a complete institution, 
and the present century may reasonably expect to 
see a Sunday League more nearly ideal than the 
one here described. 



NATIONAL EDUCATION PARTY 

A FUTURE political party might be called the "Na- 
tional Education Party." The purpose of this party 
would be to make cautious experiments in govern- 
ment and in public education, and especially to 
effect a more general distribution of a wise second- 
ary and higher school education. As such education 
must always be the important feature in the solution 
of every great political question, and since this is 
especially true of the temperance question, the Tem- 
perance Party might, for a time, become the temper- 
ance branch of the Education Party. Others of the 
smaller parties, and progressive sections of the Re- 
publican and Democratic parties, might temporarily 
adopt the same course. This united effort might be 
maintained until the principal common objects were 
accomplished. The "National Education Party" 
might have a platform consisting of sections num- 
bered as follows, approximately in the order sup- 
posed to be best for their practical application :^ — 
1. Direct Primary Laws of the most approved 
form. 

^ In this list of sugg-estions, those that are printed in italics are 
full or partial copies of some of the best " Demands " in the Social- 
ist platform of 1908. 



210 NATIONAL EDUCATION PARTY 

2. The initiative and referendum^ proportional 
representation^ and the right oj^ recall, 

3. The organization of a National Taxation Com- 
mission and of auxiliary state commissions whose 
duty it shall be to evolve a more scientific system 
of taxation. 

4. For experimental purposes only, local option 
by counties as to the method of taxation, — this local 
option to be limited to one county in each state, 
and limited also to the various methods of taxation 
prescribed for experimental purposes by the Na- 
tional and State Taxation Commissions. 

5. The making of experiments under the super- 
vision of the Taxation Commissions to determine the 
feasibility of the gradual introduction of a system of 
combined Single Tax and what may be called a 
"Graduated Real Estate Income Tax." The pur- 
pose of this system of taxation is to keep down the 
price of land, and otherwise to prevent excessive 
rents. ^ 

1 It is believed that Single Tax alone would in some cases ac- 
complish the desired purpose for a limited time only, after which 
a " Graduated Real Estate Income Tax " might be applied to any- 
excessive rents that might appear. When strict government reg- 
ulation of public utilities, or government ownership thereof, is 
more general, and when voluntary cooperation in industry and 
trade is more common, the question of taxation will J)e simpler 
than at present. Only under conditions such as these can reforms 
in taction have a permanently good e£Eect. 



NATIONAL EDUCATION PARTY 211 

6. The enactment of further measures for gen- 
eral education and for the conservation of health. 
The Bureau of Education to he made a department* 
The creation of a department of public health, 

7. The making, under government supervision, 
of a number of experiments with public works schools. 
The plan of these schools provides for young men 
and women an opportunity to earn an education by 
doing public work. In case of successful results from 
these experiments, the establishment of public works 
school departments for self-supporting students in 
all high schools and colleges.^ 

8. The establishment of state normal schools that 
provide seven hours daily of industrial work and 
three hours daily of school work. The business fur- 
nishing this industrial work to be reserved as a state 
monopoly, and the wages for seven hours of daily 
labor to be sufficient to support a family. The ob- 
ject of these schools shall be to encourage young 
men to take up the vocation of teaching. ^ 

^ An outline for combining school work and municipal em- 
ployment is more fully elaborated in the article " Public Works 
Hig-h Schools." One result of these schools will be that they 
■wUl make of the students efficient workers in public as well as in 
private enterprises. 

2 A plan that would apply to a school of this nature is described 
in the article " Manufacturing Works High Schools " ; this plan 
is equally applicable to a school for yoimg men. 



212 NATIONAL EDUCATION PAKTY 

9. The government ownership of railroads^ tel- 
egraphs^ telephones, steamship lines, and all other 
means of transportation and communication, 

10. The government ownership of the lumber 
industry. 

11. The government ownership of the Portland 
cement industry. 

12. The government ownership of grain eleva- 
tors. 

13. TTie government ownership of all industries 
which are organized on a national scale and in 
which competition has virtually ceased to exist. 

14. The government ownership of mines, quar- 
ries, cement deposits, oil wells, forests, and water 
power. 

15. The municipal ownership of water works, 
electric light and power plants, gas works, and street 
car lines. 

16. This government and municipal ownership 
to be effected only as properly equipped students 
and graduates of public works schools are avail- 
able for the purpose of operating such activities. 

17. The scientific reforesting of timber lands, 
and the reclamation of swamp lands; the land so re- 
forested or reclaimed to he permanently retained as 
part ofthepublic domain, and the income therefrom 
to be used in part for additional school facilities. 



NATIONAL EDUCATION PAETY 213 

18. The establishment of a Department of Pub- 
lic Ownership and Voluntary Cooperation for the 
distribution of such knowledge as will further 
municipal and government ownership of public utili- 
ties, and voluntary cooperation in mercantile and 
manufacturing activities. A special purpose of this 
department shall be the publication of knowledge 
necessary for the construction and operation of pub- 
lic utility works. 

19. The establishment, for national defense, of 
a militia composed of self-supporting students em- 
ployed at public work. Approximately six hours 
of drilling, eighteen hours of school attendance, and 
thirty hours of work per week to be required from 
each militiaman. 

20. The establishment, for national defense, of an 
adequate regular army composed of self-supporting 
student soldiers. Approximately twenty-four hours 
of drilling, eighteen hours of industrial work, and 
eighteen hours of school attendance to be required 
per week. The industrial work is to be such as is 
required to equip and maintain the army and navy. 
As far as possible, the drilling is to be given with 
a view to physical culture. 

21. The establishment, for national defense, of 
an adequate navy under a plan similar to that just 
given for the army. School ships or combined 



214 NATIONAL EDUCATION PARTY 

school ships and colliers to accompany the war- 
ships. 

22. The maintenance of such militia, army, and 
navy until the people of all great nations, through 
education and experience, have so far advanced in 
moral and aesthetic development that war wiU be 
outside of the realm of possibilities. 

23. Provision for special elections for women 
only, — these elections to be on the question of 
limited suffrage for women, to be followed in ten 
years by general suffrage. In order to carry the 
question, a majority vote of the women shall be re- 
quired, and this majority vote shall not be less than 
the number representing one half of the registered 
men voters. 

24. The appointment of a National Monetary 
Commission to find a unit of value that will an- 
swer the purposes of money, but that will not con- 
sume so much energy as does the production of 
gold and silver coin. The commission to be directed 
to investigate a plan for a paper dollar with a com- 
posite base, as soon as the government owns the 
grain elevators, and either owns the mines or con- 
trols the products thereof. Each one hundred dol- 
lars to represent a given quantity of the following 
and similar products: wheat, oats, com, rice, gold, 
silver, nickel, copper, lead, iron. 



NATIONAL EDUCATION PARTY 215 

25. The organization of a permanent tariff com- 
mission composed of one member from eacli state, 
the members to be elected directly by the people. 
The annual reduction in the tariff on each article 
now protected, — this reduction to be six per cent 
of present tariff rates, provided, however, that the 
reduction may at any time be suspended, if proof is 
furnished which satisfies the commission that a fur- 
ther lessening of rates would be inimical to fair 
profits and to the American standard of wages. 

26. The formation of a National Political Sci- 
ence Commission, the duty of which shall be to 
suggest to the country at large what it considers 
the most needed laws. The formation of similar 
state commissions. 

27. The continuance of all present special com- 
missions, and the formation of others for the pur- 
pose of seeking such knowledge as is needed for 
good government. 



SOCIAL SYSTEM — EDUCATION — 
RACE SUICIDE 

The best social system would provide continuous 
occupation for every man, whether his capabilities 
were great or small. The occupation provided 
would be such as is well suited to the worker, but 
he would be given every practicable opportunity 
to change his occupation at will. At its best, the 
system should provide such remuneration to the 
individual as would represent as nearly as possible 
the worth of his labors, both in the quantity and 
in the quality of the work done. 

Under present conditions of civilization, the ac- 
tivities are so specialized as to make it seemingly 
an impossible task to plan a social system that 
approaches even approximate fairness. It requires 
comparatively no thought to leave all social pro- 
blems to work themselves out as best they may un- 
der the unfair, crude, and clumsy methods of " in- 
dustrial competition " and " supply and demand " 
that are still in force against the average man, and 
that bring wholly unearned hardships upon many 
who are favored with less than their share of good 



EACE SUICIDE 217 

fortune. Strict government supervision of aU im- 
portant industries, — a supervision approaching gov- 
ernment ownership ; government ownership itseK ; 
and better public education are at present the 
principal movements toward making employment 
steadier, more available to all, and more justly 
remunerative. 

Without an unrestrained growth in secondary 
and higher education, a social system cannot be at 
its best. Since most young people will always de- 
pend on their own resources, the best social sys- 
tem will provide for every self-supporting young 
person who desires an education, an opportunity 
to earn the expenses of school attendance. Under 
a well-planned programme combining education 
and remunerative occupation, practically all cap- 
able young people would, in time, avail themselves 
of at least a secondary-school education. When this 
stage of education is reached, the vexatious wage 
question will largely adjust itself. As education ad- 
vances, both individuial wages and individual capa- 
city will tend toward equalization. In addition to 
the qualifications already mentioned, the best social 
system would make it plainly apparent that a man 
must be estimated both according to his intellect, 
and according to his attitude toward others and 
toward himself. 



218 RACE SUICIDE 

Under a social system such as that described, 
most fathers and mothers would be well informed, 
refined in character, and economically well situ- 
ated. This enlightenment of parents would cause 
them to regard the rearing of a child as a pleasure 
infinitely deeper than that with which an artist re- 
gards the painting of his masterpiece. Art in its 
broadest meaning is the soul of life. By the time 
that the art of rearing children — an art which in- 
volves all knowledge — is recognized as the high- 
est of aU arts, race suicide will be a thing of the 
past. 



ONE WAY TO SPEND TWO MILLIONS 
FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD^ 

The country is seriously in need of all the reforms, 
or " advance " movements that are now under way« 
Some are more needed than others, but none are 
more necessary than those which promise advance 
along lines of secondary education. This advance 
should lead to a more general distribution of this 
education, and improTement in its quality. This 
better education is needed to give value to the 
good work being done in all other advance move- 
ments. 

The foregoing belief accounts for the following 
suggestion for the use of a fund of two million 
dollars designed to improve general conditions. 
Each step in the suggestion is given on the assump- 
tion that all previously given steps have worked 
out as desired. 

Reserve enough to cover the expenses of investi- 
gation, and place the fund in charge of a trust com- 

^ The paper on this subject was "written by request ; its purpose 
is to explain how a manufacturing works high school may be made 
into a public institution. 



220 HOW TO SPEND TWO MILLIONS 

pany to invest in loans. Study the cotton mill busi- 
ness, — say in Georgia, — and select a suitable mill 
whose owners desire to cooperate in carrying out 
the following ideas : — 

Organize a school equipped to teach one hundred 
sixteen-year-old pupils in the forenoon and a like 
number in the afternoon. Gradually induce two 
hundred young people of the vicinity to work five 
hours and attend school three hours daily; and 
send one half to school in the forenoon, and the 
other half in the afternoon. As rapidly as practi- 
cable, increase the standard of the school until it is 
a first-class high school. 

From the fund, supplement the student workers' 
wages so that a reasonable amount of energetic 
work will yield enough to pay a little more than 
the necessary expenses of living and school attend- 
ance. 

In order to guide the young people into eco- 
nomical ways of living, have a course in the school 
on personal expenditures. 

Gradually change the personnel of the working 
force until all but superintendents are student 
workers of sixteen years and over. 

Enlarge the experiment until the entire annual 
income from the fund is consumed. Estimating a 
low net income and a high expense rate, it is pos- 



HOW TO SPEND TWO MILLIONS 221 

sible that only four hundred students could be 
accommodated. 

Induce the city or the school district to reimburse 
the fund for the cost of the school building and 
equipment. 

Induce the National Child Labor Committee to 
furnish and apply labels to the products of the 
mill, and have these labels state how much per 
yard extra each kind of cloth costs in consequence of 
the school plan. Also induce the committee to urge 
all who are in sympathy with its work to demand 
the goods from this mill at the slightly advanced 
price. 

Buy the cotton mill at a prearranged price. 

As soon as the public demands more than the 
output at a price that pays additional cost of cloth 
from this mill, the fund will be relieved of supple- 
menting the students' wages. Extend the plan to 
other mills as fast as this condition makes it pos- 
sible. 

In order to make the work more interesting, let 
the school curriculum include a complete study of 
the business, from the purchasing of the raw ma- 
terial to the collecting of accounts. 

For educational purposes and to avoid monotony, 
vary the students' mill work occasionally, and later 
give older students some voice in the management, 



222 HOW TO SPEND TWO MILLIONS 

as suggested in the article on "Manufacturing 
Works High Schools." 

Net profits should be used either to extend the 
plan or to lower the prices, as circumstances might 
indicate. 

Induce state legislatures to recognize cotton 
manufacturing as a public school industry, and to 
extend the plan as fast as suitable graduate work- 
ers from the first mill can be obtained to manage 
other mills. 

If dispensing with the net profit would offset 
the better wages and place selling prices as low as 
those established by privately owned mills, there 
would be no difficulty in disposing of the product 
of school mills under any rate of increase in output. 
Corruption or negligence in the business would be 
impossible, as all the current details of the business 
would be given in the school course, and would be 
studied by pupils and teachers. 



A FEARLESS CHURCH— A BETTER 
COUNTRY 

It is said that it is useless to think of having a 
better country until there is a fundamental im- 
provement in human nature; and it is also said 
that any fundamental change in human nature is a 
matter of centuries of time. This argument is used 
against activity designed to improve political con- 
ditions, and especially against all movements in- 
tended to bring about government control or own- 
ership of public utilities. It is often urged that no 
reform effort is of lasting benefit, because the pub- 
lic is either hopelessly incompetent or hopelessly 
corruptible. 

All that is necessary in order to have a better 
country than we at present enjoy is to use to good 
advantage such reasoning power as we now pos- 
sess. All we need is a little clearing of our mental 
vision. The problem is largely a matter of awaken- 
ing each individual to his present power for good, 
and of showing him the best use to which he can 
put his present capabilities. 

Do we put these capabilities to the best use by 



224 A BETTEK COUNTRY 

spending our time in the accumulation of money so 
that we may eventually live in extravagant luxury, 
wear expensive clothes, eat expensive foods, attend 
costly social entertainments, live in a locality known 
as the most exclusive, travel for the opportunity of 
posing as travelers, or for the purpose of driving 
away domestic ennui that should not exist ? Does 
not such use of our capabilities, of our power to 
reason, result in a relatively characterless and 
empty life ? Is such life really — life ? Do we put 
our reasoning power to good use when we spend 
our time accumulating money in order that we may 
lovingly grant every whim of our children ; in order 
that we may favor relatives, friends, and passing 
strangers, and thus put them under some kind of 
obligation to us, — call it obligation of friendship 
if you will ? A life so spent may be a step higher 
than the one previously described, but it is far 
from the ideal life. Is our reasoning power well 
directed if we spend our time in accumulating 
money, not for personal comfort, but for the pur- 
pose of lessening the pain of sympathy that we 
feel because of the suffering we see about us ? It 
is not well-directed reason if we relieve that suffer- 
ing merely with the salve of alms, gifts, or free 
service. Such relief does not cure, and a life so 
spent is not the life of a strong man. 



A BETTER COUNTRY 225 

Is not that man's reasoning power well directed 
who studies his own character and develops his own 
independence, and who, by example as well as by- 
precept, tries to develop character and independ- 
ence in every member of his family in order that 
each member may raise the standard of manhood ? 
Is his reasoning power well-directed if he develops 
in himself enough of the spirit of fairness to feel 
the unearned suffering of those less fortunate, and 
the foolish waste of happiness of many of the more 
fortunate ? Is his reasoning power well directed if 
he spends such time as he can in attempts to improve 
the social conditions that hinder the proper devel- 
opment of some of his fellow men ? Surely the man 
who so directs his reasoning power is a " soldier of 
the common good " ; his life is not characterless 
and empty ; he lives not only in the present, but in 
the future as he wishes it to be ; he is above the 
petty human failings that impede true progress ; he 
sees hope for humanity, and nothing can darken 
the light of that hope. His family is likely to mani- 
fest the same public spirit. His wife is likely to 
care infinitely less about display or the ease of lux- 
ury, and infinitely more about having her children 
and other children live in a better and fairer world. 
She is pleased to have a husband who is in truth a 
man, and children who promise to become strong, 



226 A BETTER COUNTRY 

modest men and women. A simple fireside, a small 
library, a healthy mind, a well-developed body, the 
ability to do a specific share of the world's work 
both of hand and of mind, fair economic and social 
conditions, and the material and spiritual condi- 
tions that result from all these things, are what 
such a mother hopes for her children's future. 

To be financially rich is in the minds of the 
characterless a sort of substitute for richness in 
manhood. Financial riches, for the sake of such 
riches, are only for those who are blind to the op- 
portunities of being men, instead of expert money- 
getters. It is this blindness that so seriously retards 
well-balanced political and industrial progress. 

We all know that humanity is weak. Edward 
may be jealous of James ; Mary may be envious of 
Ann; Frank may mistrust Charles undeservedly. 
It may not be within the present power of any of 
these to overcome their respective states of mind, 
but every one of them can easily do some good 
work for humanity. No sane man ignores the 
needs of humanity ; no sane man is jealous or en- 
vious of it, nor does any sane man distrust it. The 
individual can more easily do real good to human- 
ity, taken collectively, than he can taking it indi- 
vidually. Your humanity is the public that is with- 
in your sphere of influence. If you take advantage 



A BETTER COUNTRY 227 

of it in any way, or if by indifferent example you 
fail to inspire in the right way those who are 
younger in years, you are an enemy of your 
children, of your children's children, and of all hu- 
manity. This serious charge applies to the laborer 
who shirks his work; to the senator who " grafts "; 
to the monopolizer in land and other public re- 
sources ; to the millionaire who spends but little of 
his time and money for the benefit of institutions 
intended to improve human conditions ; to every 
man in whose mind the thought of the service to be 
rendered does not take precedence over the thought 
of private gain. Fortimately, when a man works for 
the public good he best learns how to do real good 
to himself and to those nearest to him. In fact, 
this is often the only practical way to overcome 
the feelings of antagonism and antipathy that 
develop between individuals. The man who cares 
little for the public good or for humanity can 
care for an individual only from the most selfish 
motives. When the present degree of reasoning 
power of the average citizen is directed toward the 
public good, we shall advance as a nation in a 
manner unprecedented. 

Not much longer will the organized community 
be a thing to "pluck," because the public is fast 
learning to apprehend the " plucker " ; because an 



228 A BETTER COUNTRY 

ever-increasing number are learning that it always 
degrades to act as a public parasite; and because 
the individual is learning that the community stands 
for humanity, and that his own, and especially his 
children's interests, are identical with the interests 
of humanity. The advancement of humanity, not 
only for the good of the present generation, but 
also for the good of succeeding generations, must 
always be the object of every enlightened and well- 
balanced mind. It matters not how good a man may 
otherwise be, if he knowingly injures the public, he 
wholly nullifies this good. 

Why do not more churches try to improve the 
individual through his latent love for humanity ? 
Do many ministers study the effects of land specu- 
lation, or of our system of land taxation and land 
ownership? Do many ministers study the practical 
workings of our system of franchise granting, and 
then offer criticism to members of their congrega- 
tions who are directors in companies that utilize 
such franchises improperly? Do many ministers 
study the practical workings of our system of pri- 
vately owned public utility businesses, or the methods 
and workings of our political conventions and our 
elections in large cities, and then argue against 
further wrong-doing in these fields ? Do many min- 
isters urge those of their congregation who are 



A BETTER COUNTRY 229 

best fitted for the work to form, with their pastor's 
cooperation, a society for the purpose of studying 
sociologic conditions, in order that he may intelli- 
gently discuss child labor if in a factory district; 
land speculation, if in a growing community ; tainted 
news, if a tainted paper circulates in the locality ; 
or that he may intelligently discuss the subject 
of taxation, of the preservation and redemption of 
national resources, and other topics which are of 
vital interest, and which, on account of their hu- 
manitarian side, would be at least as stimulating 
and elevating morally as any part of the regular 
sermons ? 

Perhaps all who read this article know of minis- 
ters who are working along these lines. The num- 
ber thus working is sufficiently large to show that 
it is practicable for able and fearless ministers to 
undertake the preaching of these first principles 
of applied Christianity. It is true that some of the 
larger contributors to the church fund may be dis- 
pleased. These contributors would rather see the 
church confine itself to organized charities, — a de- 
vice that relieves only a small part of the misery due 
to wrong political and economic conditions, and re- 
lieves it in the wrong way. A fearless, tactful, well- 
informed minister can successfully preach on land 
and other speculation, tenement house iniquities, 



230 A BETTER COUNTRY 

monopoly prices of utilities, and other social wrongs. 
The personnel of his congregation may gradually 
change ; some of those who have gained an unfair 
advantage of the public may be improved by the 
sermons ; others may leave the church for a time, 
and, as a result, the minister may be obliged to ac- 
cept a lower salary. Possibly as soon as the minis- 
ter must live on a smaller salary, those wiU leave 
who can judge of a minister's ability only by the 
salary he receives. But would not all the best mem- 
bers remain ? Would not new and thoughtful listen- 
ers join ? Would not those who leave enter a congen- 
ial church ? It must not be inferred that it is only 
the rich man who has not learned the true way of 
life, and who needs instruction. Every poor man 
who, for instance, wishes that some so-called good 
luck would put him in possession of an independent 
fortune to be used for display, luxury, or ease, is, 
in proportion to his influence, as great a burden to 
society, and needs enlightenment as badly as the 
rich man who has similar ambitions. 

Why does not the church, as a whole, patiently 
and thoroughly study sociologic conditions, and 
then considerately and fearlessly attack the wrong 
it sees and understands? Is what should be the 
House of God only the " House of Fear " ? If so, 
what does it fear? Is it the loss of the rich man's 



A BETTER COUNTRY 231 

patronage? Perhaps the church is not afraid. Is it 
hypnotized by the rich? Or is it asleep ? 

These questions can be better answered after cer- 
tain present-day efforts have passed their experi- 
mental stage. In the meantime, we may feel en- 
couraged because the church is awakening to its 
duties and possibilities. Let us watch. If the church 
wiU only be a careful student of conditions prior to 
taking radical steps, we may expect tremendous re- 
sults. After such a reformation in the church, those 
men who left, but who on second thought are amen- 
able to reason, wiU eventually return to be its best 
workers. 

To illustrate the need of church work in civic 
morals, almost any reader can recall some acquaint- 
ance who answers to the following description. A 
certain man in an enlightened American city is a 
prominent citizen and a leading member of a great 
church that has a brilliant minister. The man is 
prominent in public and private business life, and 
also in social life, and for many years has been a 
member of this church. If drawn into a friendly 
yet earnest discussion in regard to the possibility 
of raising the standard of individual morals and 
true fellowship by developing a high sense of pub- 
lic duty, this man would smile and say that when 
his pocketbook was affected, his civic pride and 



232 A BETTER COUNTRY 

honor had to step aside. He would further say that 
none of his acquaintances differed from him in this 
regard, and would intimate that if any man is really 
different at this stage of human progress, this man 
must be one lacking in judgment. 

Individual goodness to family or to friends, 
unless it has underlying it real concern for the gen- 
eral good, or at least a latent capacity for this con- 
cern, does not differ from that goodness which ani- 
mals exercise toward their families and associates. 
This being the case, the extreme moral inexperience 
of the type of man just discussed becomes apparent 
as a matter seemingly beyond the hope of better- 
ment. Surely such men were born with as strong a 
tendency toward righteousness as were most men, 
and they are considered honorable. Had the church 
known how to teach them the love of humanity, 
and from the time of their early youth dared to 
teach them this love, they would have been genu- 
inely public-spirited citizens long before maturity, 
and would now be good men instead of only good 
moral animals, as animals go. You may say that 
such a man is good, — that he would die for his 
wife and children. This, you may say, is the height 
of unselfishness ; but, as said before, this unselfish- 
ness is no greater than that manifested by the lower 
animals : a cat will die for her kittens ; a dog, in 



A BETTER COUNTRY 233 

order to protect his master, will take chances that 
often result in death. The cat and dog may not 
know that they put themselves in danger, never- 
theless, the chances they take are such as they re- 
frain from taking on all common occasions. Again 
you may say that in the case of the animals the act 
of self-sacrifice is an act of instinct, while with the 
man it is an act of free-will. That man who would 
readily give his life for his children, yet who has 
no care for the public good, could sacrifice himself 
only by reason of instinct. Only the human ele- 
ment in a man is concerned with the public good. 
All other conscious life is purely animal, and ani- 
mal life, whether in the human body or in that of 
the lower animals, is governed by what is called 
instinct. 

Reason as we may, that which distinguishes hu- 
man life and happiness from the life and happiness 
of lower animals, is a concern for the common good. 
Those in whom this concern does not exist are not 
yet human. In order to make a better country, 
there can be no doubt as to the line of work along 
which the church of to-morrow must fearlessly 
direct its efforts. 



DISCUSSION REFERRED TO IN FOOT-NOTE, 
PAGE 6 

SELF-supporting students who are not beyond the age 
limit for high-school attendance will not .be required to 
pay tuition, so they can easily live on wages of five and 
a half dollars a week. Upon first thought, a wage of six 
dollars a week for only part-time work may seem high 
for young men of sixteen to eighteen years who have had 
but little experience, but these student workers are nat- 
urally selected from among those who passed the eighth, 
ninth, or tenth grades with special credit. Each, as a 
result of his own wisdom, is willing to forego the plea- 
sures of an easier life in order to make a long-continued 
efPort for the future economic, social, and intellectual 
good that results from education. As a rule, young men 
of this type are energetic, truthful, and reliable ; and, 
after a comparatively short experience, they can safely 
be given fairly responsible positions. Failures among 
them are rare, so the necessity for changing help is in- 
frequent. Under half-time school attendance, the self- 
supporting students can do from five to six hours of work 
each school day and a few additional hours on Saturdays. 
They find delight in both work and study under these hope- 
ful conditions, and they are usually strong and happy, 
and, almost without exception, stand high in school. 
Employers who have sufficient faith in earnest students 



DISCUSSION OF WAGES 235 

to employ them, will soon feel inclined to pay them such 
wages as they are worth by comparison with regular em- 
ployees, although these wages may be somewhat more 
than are customarily paid workers of the same age. It 
should be borne in mind that the proposed plan provides 
that the student workers shall be first tried and required 
to gain some experience before they are permanently 
employed and allowed these wages. Many capable young 
people now command wages of twenty cents per hour. 
When one considers these points, the wages proposed do 
not seem improbable or unreasonable. Employers find 
these self-supporting students, even at the wages stated, 
to be as profitable as any help they have. Even in parts 
of the country where the proposed wages are, for the 
present, beyond the earning capacity of young students, 
the plan suggested would still answer for those who 
obtain some assistance from home. The number of able 
young people of the ages discussed is limited, but this 
ability will rapidly become more general, as the custom 
of earning one's way through school becomes more com- 
mon. 



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